Skip to main content

What are five myths about the Radleys' house and their family in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the Radleys live a few doors down from the Finch children. The house is across the street from Miss Maudie's and behind the elementary school. The Radleys' property also has a few oak and nut trees, whose nuts fall into the schoolyard. In chapter 1, Scout tells about how people believe anything associated with the Radleys' house is evil. As a result, school children won't even touch the pecans that fall into the school yard, let alone eat any. Children believe that if they eat the nuts from the Radleys' property, they'll die. Additionally, children won't go after any baseballs that might go into the Radleys' backyard. Scout says, "A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked" (9). It's as though someone might spontaneously combust from stepping foot into the yard. If that's the case, then no one would even think of knocking on the door to ask permission to retrieve a ball!


Another myth about the house is that it is bad luck. For example, most of those from the black community won't walk on the sidewalk in front of it. Scout explains this myth by saying the following: "A Negro would not pass the Radley Place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked" (9). That superstitious feeling even carries over to Calpurnia who spits when Mr. Radley's body is taken out of the house. The whistling and spitting practices are used to ward off evil spirits or bad luck, apparently. 


Finally, other myths are based on Boo Radley and his activity in and out of the house. First, Stephanie Crawford claims that he lurks through neighborhoods during the night and looks in at windows. Then, Jem perpetuates more myths when he describes Boo as though he is a monster as follows:



"Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained . . . There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time" (13).



Not only is Boo believed to be a monster who peeks into windows at night, but he also has a couple of stories (myths) about him misbehaving that circulate through town. The first story involves him joyriding with some Cunningham boys in high school, which lands him in jail; then, the second one has to do with him stabbing his father in the leg with scissors while living at home as an adult. Both stories are used to support superstitious and prejudiced attitudes towards the Radleys and their home. As with all myths, the person hearing the stories must determine which part is real and which part is fabricated.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more