Friday, October 17, 2008

Chapters 4-7 Boo Radley's tree

What did Scout and Jem find in the Radleys' tree? Where do Scout and Jem suppose it came from? Why? How does this play a role in the theme of urban legends?

10 comments:

yasmin F. said...

Both Scout and Jem find different objects in the tree, and it was obvious that Boo Radley had put them there. I think that this proves taht Boo Radley isnt all that bad. This action is saying that in a way, he wants to be Jem and Scout's friend. I also think that Boos' dad doesn't want Boo to friends with them, so that is why he fills the tree up with cement.

Maria S. said...

“…and withdrew two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers.”(Lee 33)
“… and found myself pointing at another piece of tinfoil…we looked at a small box patch worked with bits of tinfoil collected from chewing gum wrappers…Inside were two scrubbed and polished pennies...”(Lee 34)
“… I pulled out two small images carved in soap. One was the figure of a boy and the other wore a crude dress.” (Lee 59)
Scout and Jem found chewing gum, soap figures similar to them and a box with two pennies inside. They believe all these presents came from Boo/ Arthur Radley. The legend of Boo Radley plays a part of urban legends in a very direct way because urban legends talk about something modern or of that period of time. Boo Radley isn’t more than just a person that is known to exist, but not seen. It could be interpreted the same way as ghost story; there isn’t any other way to explain it.

Ms. R. said...

Maria, that's not really what an urban legend is. You said "urban legends talk about something modern or of that period of time." Urban legels are not restricted to any time period in the past. They are like modern legends, in a way. Stories that aren't true, but because they are repeated so many times, people believe them. It was a kind of urban legend that Boo was some kind of weird monster.

adrian said...

Scout and Jem would always walk past the Radley place in order to go to school and back, sometimes Scout even ran because she was afraid of Boo Radley. When either Jem or Scout walked past the Radley house they would find something inside the tree hole on the tree that was on the Radley place. They found stuff like: “two pieces of chewing gum minus their outer wrappers, a piece of tinfoil, two small images carved in soap. One was the figure of a boy and the other wore a crude dress in the shape of a girl, a box with two Indian heads inside (pennies), and a broken watch".

Jem and Scout thought and nearly knew that they came from Arthur "Boo" Radley. They thought many things but they specially fantasized on where it came from and how it got there. They thought that Boo had left things there as presents for them and also a way to communicate with them.

This plays a part in the theme of urban legends because what Scout and Jem know about Boo are just literally legends about him. Scout and Jem only hear gossip about Boo in their neighborhood and around their school grounds. Because of all this gossip and false stories that were originated about Boo they have created of him an evil, and fiendish character.

For those who don’t know here is the definition for Urban Legend is here

Definition: An apocryphal, secondhand story told as true and plausible enough to be believed, about some horrific, embarrassing, ironic, or exasperating series of events that supposedly happened to a real person.

taken from:http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/glossary/g/urban_legend.htm

adrian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
adrian said...

In order to what Yasmin said. I don't think that it was Boos dad Nathan Radley is actually his older brother. And maybe he plugged the tree hole because he just did not want anybody talking to Boo or he just did not want Boo to have an excuse in order to come out.

I took some info on sparknotes about Nathan in order to help you

What I got was:
Nathan Radley - Boo Radley's older brother. Scout thinks that Nathan is similar to the deceased Mr. Radley, Boo and Nathan's father. Nathan cruelly cuts off an important element of Boo's relationship with Jem and Scout when he plugs up the knothole in which Boo leaves presents for the children.

Anonymous said...

Scout and Jem found gum in the Radley's tree. Jem and Scout did not know where the gum came from at first, but then they realised that it was from Boo Radley. Boo Radley put the gum there so that other people would start to wonder where it came from, so that if they did find out where it came from, they would start to acknowledge Boo.

andy said...

Turns out that there was some gum and several other artifacts that may have been of interest to them. It's a bit obvious that Boo Radley put them there. Nobody else would put Gum and other strange artifacts in there. The only reason somebody would do this is to either get attention or show that it's a good person. The thing is that he wanted to actually socialize with people without actually coming up to them and talking to them. It was a sort of communication that did not have any actually relationship. This is very important because Dill is is convinced even more about the fact that Boo Radley actually comes out of the house and that it will be much easier to catch him once they see him come out.

Jacky Mejia said...

Scout finds gum, soap figures, and a watch. Boo Radley wants to share with them some of the things that are important to him. I think that what his brother, Nathan did to fill up the hole with cement was very mean. If Boo wanted to share with Jem and Scout, its his decision. If Nathan does not, he does not have to interfer with what his brother Boo wants. It is Boo's life , not Nathan's.

Anonymous said...

fuck up maria