The Coexistence of Good and Evil

The Coexistence of Good and Evil

            Arthur Radley was a character that explained the books theme perfectly, which made his character one that didn’t need very much explaining for some parts because the reader could understand the meaning behind his actions. “Boo” Radley was both good and evil at the same time, which made his character interesting to read about. Boo was a good person, but never showed how good he was because he hardly ever went outside. This was another reason why rumors started to grow about Boo Radley and the Radley house. Boo Radley was not all good because in the end of the book, he ends up killing Bob Ewell, which was only for good purposes, but was still an evil action. “Mr.Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand? (Lee 370)” There are two examples of good and evil in this quote. First, Boo Radley killed a man, which is bad, but he killed for good reasons, and second, Atticus lies to the city, which is bad, but he lied to save Boo Radley, who is good in real life. Atticus does a bad deed for a good person, which makes Scout feel relieved about Jem not having to go to court.

Fear and Courage

Fear and Courage:

            Boo Radley was known as a person that would harm someone if they got near him in any way, (which ended up not to be true) but Jem, Scout and Dill were courageous enough to play games and walk in front of the Radley house almost every day. For people to be afraid of walking even close to the Radley house, jem showed a lot of courage to touch the Radley house on a dare. “ Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us, not waiting to see if his foray was successful" (Lee 18). Jem had both fear and courage running through his mind when he ran past the Radley’s gate, and got past the fact that he might get caught.

            Another key example of fear, that was a main component of this novel, was the fear that ran through Mayella’s brain when she accused an innocent man of rape. Mayella did not seem like a bad, cruel person from the description that the readers read from the book, yet she still was the main cause of an innocent man’s death. Bob Ewell was said to beat her daughter, and when she knew that she would get another one of those beatings from her father, she wanted to prevent it by letting fear overcome her moral self and let a man die for no logical reason. “ He does tollable, ‘cept when-“ “except when? [Atticus replied]” “Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with his chair tipped against the railing. He sat up straight and waited for her to answer" (Lee 245). This quote was crucial in the Tom Robinson case because a doubt was set into peoples minds about whether or not Tom Robinson was the one to beat Mayella or if it was her own father. Fear of getting beat by her father caused Mayella to stumble during this question, which she eventually ended up lying to the whole courtroom. Fear can often change the option one chooses unknowingly which happened in this situation to Mayella.

Innocence and Experience

Innocence and Experience:

            Someone in the book who has a great deal of experience is Atticus. Atticus is the lawyer of the city and one of the best in the business. He used lots of experience during the trial when questioning Mayella on Tom Robinson beating and raping her. “Atticus’s voice had lost its comfortableness; he was speaking in his arid, detached professional voice” (Lee 247). Anyone who has seen Atticus run a trial has seen him in a professional state. As Atticus goes through the trial it seems that he is very calm which shows that he has experience in the courtroom. Another unknown experience of Atticus’s that was shown part way through the book was the experience of sharpshooting; He was even given the nickname “One-Shot Finch” (Lee 128). Jem saw Atticus shoot the mad dog when he wasn’t supposed to. Atticus only took one shot and killed the dog. This was an unknown experience of Atticus’s because his family didn’t even know about his early shooting career. This part of the book is ironic because the main message of the book is to not judge a book by their cover but Atticus is already a mysterious man with different secrets that are hidden within his past. Atticus often looks like a lawyer on the outside but he also looks like a man who has a shady past with lots of hidden secrets.

When Atticus speaks, he has great intelligence and a wise perspective. He says many sentences in the book where the reader would have to think about what he had said and take a while to think over it again. “You never really understand a person until you climb in his shoes and walk around in them” (Lee 374). This was when Jem had just spoken to Atticus about Tom Robinson’s unfair trial and Boo Radley saving the Finch children. Atticus said this quote earlier in the book but I believe that this quote is more significant than the first one because it is about Jem. Jem repeating what his father had said earlier says this quote and finally realized that people can be good whether or not they are put in a different situation. This relates to experience because Atticus passes down his knowledge and intuition to Jem through wisdom of speech. This was Jem’s final understanding of the moral of the book, don’t judge a book by its cover. 

The Existence of Social Inequality

There has always been social inequality throughout this century, between genders, races, and even cultures. The main examples of social inequality in this book have been the racism towards Tom Robinson and the assumption that Boo Radley is a killer and a crazy person. The ending of the book explains the motif that reoccurs throughout the entire novel. Tom Robinson for example was given an unfair trial because he was a different skin color than the people running the trial, and the person who had put him in the courtroom in the first place. “ - The evil assumption- that all negroes lie, that all negroes are basically immoral beings, that all negro men are not to be trusted around our women… we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some negroes lie, some negroes are immoral, some negro men are not to be trusted around women- black or white” (Lee 273).  Atticus said this quote in the courtroom towards the jury.  Tom Robinson was not guilty as everyone knew it whether they admitted it or not, but he was sentenced to death anyway. Racism was very common back in the 30’s and was shown using this large quote from Atticus.

            Arthur Radley, also known as “Boo” does not leave his house often but is known all around the town for being crazy. Hardly anyone has ever seen him before, but everyone makes assumptions that he is a killer and sick in the head. Boo Radley is seen in the end as a nice person, and ends up saving the lives of Jem and Scout. The games that the Finch children and Dill would play at the beginning of the book was to try to see Boo Radley because they expected him to look like a freak. "According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the living room cutting some items from The Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities" (Lee 13). The rumor was obviously not true but was said anyway. Rumors that spread all around the city could make people believe thoughts that are not true and never were true. Scout ended up feeling sorry for Boo Radley because she was feeling empathetic. She knew how Boo Radley and Tom Robinson felt because she knew it was tough being in a time with race inequality and social class inequality. Another small example of social class inequality is how Walter Cunningham was treated because of how poor he was. That was only a minor for of social inequality in the book, but it was somewhat significant. Social Inequality exists today but is less existent because of human right petitions.