Do you think that Boo wants to "run off"? Do you think that Dill is right and that Boo has nowhere to go?
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Explain what Dill means in the last line of chapter 14. Is this surprising to you?
When Dill says that "Maybe [Boo Radley] doesn't have anywhere to run off to," (Lee 192) he means that since Boo has been cut off from the community for so long, he probably doesn't have any places or go to. In chapter fourteen, Scout and Jem find Dill under Scout's bed. "We watched Dill emerge by degrees." (Lee 186) Dill had run away from his house, and come to Scout. Scout asks him "Why do you reckon Boo Radley never run off?" (Lee 192) and Dill says that Boo might not of had anywhere to run off to. Dill and Boo Radley probably both wanted to run off from their houses because of their fathers. In Dill's case, he didn't like his new father, and in Boo's case, his father had forced him to stay in his house and never come out. Dill knew plenty of people that he could escape to and come to for help, but since Boo had been locked up for so long, there was no one that he could go to for help or comfort. Everyone in Maycomb thought that Boo was a mad and mean person, and that they should be terrified by him. Dill and Boo's cases are opposite because Dill has somewhere to go and Boo does not.
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Dill ran away from his house, as he did not like his father; Arthur Radley wants to run away from his home, but his father and brother are not letting him. The two of them want to run away from their strict family members. Dill understands Arthur’s struggles now that he has been in the same situation. Although the two have similar experiences, Dill had somewhere to run off to, while Arthur would not know where to go if he did get out. This could be another way that Nathan Radley is able to keep Arthur inside. Arthur does not know any other place to go. He is trapped in his house and he could not escape even if he wanted to. When the mad dog was approaching the town, Calpurnia “pounded on [the Radley’s] door in vain. No one acknowledged her warning; no one seemed to have heard it” (Lee 124). The Radley family has kept Arthur inside and isolated for so long that he can’t even accept a warning. Arthur Radley is afraid of the outside world, and he does not want to interact with it, as he does not know what will happen to him in it. Dill did know what the outside world was like and was able to take advantage of it. It would take more for Arthur to leave the safety of his home.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Dill and Boo's cases are opposite in some ways, but I also think they are very similar. After the Finch siblings find Dill, filthy and famished, hidden under Scouts bed, they take him in with no hesitation. Dill has escaped to what he calls his second home. "He was worn out, dirty beyond belief, and home" (Lee 187). Unlike Dill, Boo Radley does not have a second home, or any place that he feels welcome in that he can escape to. Boo is treated as an outcast, while Dill, in the Finch household, is treated like a third child. Similarly, both Dill and Boo Radley feel out of place and mistreated. However, Dill is very fortunate to have the Finches as his second family, while Boo Radley has no one.
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ReplyDeleteI do not think that Boo Radley wants to run away. The quote that Dills says "Maybe he (Boo Radley) doesn't have anywhere to run off to...," (Lee 192) connects to an earlier quote said by Atticus, "there are other ways of making people into ghosts, "(Lee 14). Boo Radley has become a ghost not physically, but emotionally and mentally. Life is not worth living without a purpose, and what is Boo Radleys purpose? If he is living a life not worth living, that just about makes him a ghost. This fact is reiterated by Boo not having any place to run too. Even if he did want to run, no one would take him in and he would have no where to go. He doesn't have any friends, (unlike Dill who has the Finches), and his family are the ones who turned him into a "ghost". If Boo was given the chance to run away, he would not take it because he would have no where to go.
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