To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has a wide variety of themes and messages. She introduces themes like loneliness, prejudice and shows a lot of character development. In this essay I will be looking at the theme of appearance vs. reality throughout the novel, also the minor characters such as Boo Radley, are the most clear example of this theme, as these are characters that we come to find out are not at all as they seem at first.

To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and has become a classic piece of American literature. It is set in the small town of Maycomb and is from the point of view of young Scout Finch who gives a child’s perspective on the very mature subjects of the book.

The first important character who is not all he seems is the mysterious Boo Radley, the "monster" who lives down the street. We are introduced to the character of Boo at the very start of the novel,

"It began the summer when Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out".

The fact that Boo is mentioned at the start shows us that his character will play a significant role in the book. Of course, at this point we have no idea who Boo Radley is but later on we see how he is perceived by the rest of the characters:

"Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were blood-stained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time."

By this description we can see that to Jem and Scout talking about Boo Radley gives them the same sort of thrill as telling ghost stories. Jem and Scout believe Boo is a malevolent phantom, a zombie-like man who wanders the streets at night looking for something to eat. We as readers also feel this fear of Boo Radley; we see the dark settings and atmosphere that surround Boo, like the run down Radley house which Jem, Scout and Dill sneak towards under the cover of darkness, and we perceive him the same way as the rest of the characters in the book do, because as we have not yet exposed Boo in the book, we only see him as the characters describe him. Jem and Scout fear the tale of Boo Radley’s antics, how he got up to mischief as a young boy and was there by imprisoned in the house and he was "not seen again for fifteen years." They too have never seen Boo Radley but they still long to have some connection with him.

The children seem to develop an obsession to Boo, and soon come to have concern for his well-being, and do such things as "invite him to come out" to see if he wants to talk. This may be true concern for his well being or only the children’s needs to satisfy their own curiosity. Dill said,

"We're askin' him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there – we said we wouldn't hurt him and we'd buy him an ice cream."

At this point we don’t know what Boo does in the house but we are soon given an insight into his life when the children begin to find the mysterious gifts left in the knot whole at the end of the Radley House garden. This is when we first see that Boo Radley is indeed not the monster that we originally thought and it was his loneliness that drove him to reach out to the children he found comfort in watching play.

Jem and Scout believe the story of Boo Radley was that he stabbed his own father and as a result was imprisoned in his own home. But it is after the trial of Tom Robinson that a now, more matured, Jem finally understands Boo, as we know when he says "Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside." I believe Jem comes to realize this as he has now first handedly seen how judgmental, prejudice and irrational the society they are living in is. After the trial we see how Boo saves both Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell, ultimately revealing himself for the first time.

In the end Scout is thinking about the world from Boo’s perspective. After she walks him home, she stands on his porch and imagines many of the events of the story as they must have looked to Boo. She at last realizes the love and protection that he has silently offered her and Jem all along, showing Scout and us as the reader that he is indeed not the malevolent phantom he appeared to be, in reality he was an almost regular man who was driven by loneliness.

Another minor character like Boo Radley who develops the theme of appearance versus reality, is Mrs Dubose who is seen by Jem and Scout as an old and mean woman, in reality turns out to be brave and courageous. We are introduced to Mrs Dubose as someone who treats the children with a great deal of disrespect. Every time they pass her house she hurls criticisms and insults at them:

‘Mrs Dubose was plain hell’

She pushes Jem to his limits and causes him to destroy her most treasured possessions, her camellias. Atticus punishes Jem by making him read to her. As Jem reads to her she still continues to throw criticism his way, but we seem to see her develop from being constantly verbally abusive to beginning to do it less,

‘For a moment I felt sorry for her. She was lying under a pile of quilts and looked almost friendly.’

Mrs Dubose’s attitude seems to change after a while which makes us think that she is different from just a mean and grumpy old lady

‘Mrs Dubose smiled at him. For the life of me I could not figure out how she could bring herself to speak to him when she seemed to hate him so’

Eventually Jem no longer has to read to her and Mrs Dubose passes away. It is only when she has died that Atticus tells Jem the story of Mrs Dubose. Atticus explains to his children that she was a morphine addict, and her goal was to stop taking it before she died. This shows how difficult it must have been,

‘she was very old; she spent most of each day in bed and the rest of it in a wheelchair.’

This makes Jem mature in many ways when he realizes the truth of her difficult life and he seems to regret his judgement of her. ‘She died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."

Another good example of appearance vs. reality demonstrated is the character of Dolphus Raymond, the man who is written of as a drunk as he carries around a bottle in a brown paper bag. Dolphus is also judged from his association with Negroes as he is married to one and has mixed children

‘They said it was because she found out about his coloured woman, he reckoned he could keep her and get married too. He’s been sorta drunk ever since’

He is thought because of this to be a bad man by the residents of Maycomb

‘Mr Dolphus was an evil man.’

During the trial of Tom Robinson we see that he isn’t a drunk and that all he drinks is cola. We also find that he is very wealthy and the reason he pretends to drink is that he would rather be shown as an alcoholic than have racism go around because he is white and married a black woman and had mixed children.

‘I try to give ‘em a reason you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason. When i come to town which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey – that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does’

Scout and Jem soon come to understand that he chooses to be the way he is because it is the way he chooses to live, just like how Boo Radley chooses to stay inside the Radley house. ‘it ain’t honest but............. the way i want to live’. I believe this is the way that Dolphus escaped the racism of society by pretending to be an alcoholic so he could marry who he wanted and blame it on alcohol.

In conclusion, I felt that Harper Lee very effectively conveyed the theme of appearance versus reality throughout the book as the minor characters like Boo Radley, Mrs Dubose and Dolphus Raymond appear to be evil, mean and scary but . This book made me think of how judgemental even a small society can be.