Monday, June 9, 2014

Who holds superstitious beliefs in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In To Kill a Mockingbird, superstition is to blame for how many Maycomb County residents feel about Boo Radley. For example, pecans that fall from the Radley tree are sadi to be deadly, and a baseball that lands in their yard should be considered lost. Jem shares these superstitious beliefs. He says that Boo is over "six-and-a-half feet tall," drools, and has yellow teeth. When Jem, Scout, and Walter Cunningham are walking by Boo's house on their way home for lunch, Jem points to the Radley house and says, "A hain’t lives there." Jem is referring to Boo as a kind of ghost or spook. Among the gifts that Boo leaves in the tree for the children are Indian-head pennies. Jem claims they are "real strong magic, they make you have good luck."
Another example of superstitious beliefs can be seen when Scout and Jem attend church with Calpurnia. Scout offers a description of the church and the cemetery. She describes the cemetery as "happy," taking notice of the colored glass and broken bottles decorating some of the graves. Scout also notices that there are lightning rods that "denoted dead who rested uneasily." The lightning rods are an example of a superstitious belief that the rods will protect the dead.


Many of the townsfolk's superstitions are related, not surprisingly, to the urban legend that is Boo Radley. Just about anything remotely weird or out of the ordinary that happens in Maycomb is attributed to the town's resident bogeyman. The Radleys' pecan tree is rumored to be poisoned; no wonder Jem forces Scout to spit out a piece of gum she found in the knothole of the Radleys' tree. Boo is said to regularly dine on raw squirrels and cats, which explains why his hands are (supposedly) permanently bloodstained; no black person will walk past the Radley residence at night, crossing the road to avoid it while whistling.
Adults and children alike in Maycomb are deeply superstitious, but it's the younger generation that has the strangest superstitions of all. Dill believes that he has the power to sniff out death, a power that was given to him by an old lady. Scout, for her part, is convinced of the existence of "Hot Steams," spirits forced to wander the earth that creep around at night sucking in people's breath.

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