Tuesday, December 31, 2019

How was Jem affected by Boo Radley? - To kill a Mockingbird

Jem is affected in several ways by Arthur "Boo" Radley. 
With the arrival of Dill Harris, who spends the summer at the home of his aunt's, Jem's interest in the strange recluse increases because of Dill's curiosity.

The first raid came to pass only because Dill bet Jem The Gray Ghost against two Tom Swifts that Jem wouldn't get any farther than the Radley gate. In all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.Jem thought about it for three days. I suppose he loved honor more than his head, for Dill wore him down.

Jem runs up to the Radley house and slaps it with his palm and races back in fear. When they get on the Finch porch, they look down the street, but nothing has changed. During the summer, the children playact various scenes based on the rumors about the Radleys. After some time, however, Jem and the others become deceptive about roleplaying about the Radley family because Atticus has told them to leave Arthur alone. One day Atticus comes home unexpectedly and catches Jem, Dill, and Scout when they have been told to end such play.  Although Jem tries to deceive Atticus, Atticus uses one of his legal tricks and leads Jem into admitting that they are engaged in reenacting Boo's history. 
One night after being scolded, however, Dill and Jem decide to peep into one of the windows at the Radley house. Someone from inside the house steps out onto the porch and fires a rifle. The children scatter, but Jem catches his pants on the barbed wire. He is forced to remove them so he can escape. Having heard the report of the rifle, the neighbors come outside. When Atticus sees that Jem is not wearing pants, he asks Jem what he has done with his pants. Dill quickly says that he won Jem's pants from him when they were playing strip-poker. "Were you all playing cards?" Atticus asks pointedly. Jem intervenes and says that they were using matches. That night as he and Scout lie on the porch, Jem says that he is going to retrieve his pants from the Radley yard because he does not want his father to know that he has been deceitful again.
Despite their invasions of the Radleys' privacy and acts of imitation, Boo leaves gifts for the children in the knothole of one of the trees that the children pass each day on their way home. When they find two soap figures carved in their likenesses, Jem is very touched. He saves them in his trunk of mementos. Then, after Nathan Radley cements this hole to prevent his brother from giving Jem and Scout anything else, Jem is affected by the cruelty of Nathan Radley, and he sheds tears of anger and disappointment. Later, after the travesty of the trial of Tom Robinson, a disgruntled Jem remarks, "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." 
In the final chapters, Boo Radley demonstrates his love for the Finch children again when he becomes aware of the children's distress as they attempt to reach home but are attacked by the scoundrel Bob Ewell. Boo comes outside and intervenes, and in the struggle between the two men, Ewell dies. Afterwards, Boo carries Jem home because Jem's arm has been broken. A deeply moved Atticus thanks Arthur for saving his children's lives after Sheriff Tate explains what has happened. From then on, Jem bears the reminder of the loving intervention of Boo Radley since his injured arm is shorter than the other. 

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