Mrs. Repanich
LA II Period 5
30 November 2017
Deceptive Appearances vs. Reality: The Rumors and the Truths Appearances can often reveal plenty about a person, and first impressions can impact one's social status in a community. Often, individuals are quick to make judgements about each other, without considering the other person’s perspective. Frequently, appearances can turn out to be deceptive, in outstanding and unfortunate ways, and this idea is shown by Harper Lee in To Kill A Mockingbird, a fiction novel written in 1960 set in the segregated american south during the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, Jem and Scout, two children who lose their innocence, are introduced to many examples of deceptive appearances …show more content…
Boo Arthur Radley is a caring child emotionally damaged by his father. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo is one of the novel’s “mockingbirds”. The quintessential “mockingbird” is a courteous person, emotionally and physically damaged due to the novel’s antagonists. The antagonists are under the false misconception that Boo “went out at night...and peeped in windows.” Countless individuals “still [look] at the Radley place...unwilling to discard their...suspicions” (Lee 9). Because of many rash, misguided actions he committed inside of his household, such as the scissor attack, people have assigned him a deceptive appearance accompanied by rumors and lies. Boo is despised by the majority of the population of Maycomb, and throughout the beginning chapters of the novel, the Finch children attempt to pull him out of his house, resulting in a failure every time. Only after the children grow up, do they realize that Boo Radley was a caring person all along, one who gave countless gifts and watched out for them. Even after experiencing abuse as a child, many individuals have gone on to be successful as adults. One example is Bill Clinton, whose stepfather, Roger Clinton, was abusive and struggled with alcoholism (Ranker 1). Even though R. Clinton was a remorseless guardian, B. Clinton later became the 42nd president of the United States of America, and has raised over 2 billion dollars for Humanitarian aid. In To Kill a Mockingbird, few other characters in this novel have reached such a perfect example of becoming a “mockingbird” as Boo Radley has: a boy who at first is considered evil, but later is shown to be a true