At the end of the novel of Heaper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, many things unravel. An adult Scout says, “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into that tree what we took out of it: we have given him nothing, and it made me sad”.
Scout is wrong.
Scout, Gem, and Dill eave Boo Raddled various gifts as well he gave them. Throughout the novel, Scout gave Boo friendship, a connection to the outside world, and privacy. Although the gifts may not have been material, they are very meaningful to Boo. Nobody can deny that Scout and Boo Raddled had a special bond. Scout and Boo had secret friendship. Neither of them may have realized how much they cared for each other, but the readers they knew.
Boo Raddled was a huge part in scouts childhood. In this hidden friendship, Boo had given scout material, and a slight interaction with her.
Scout, she gave Boo the opportunity for Macomb to not see him s the monster they think he is. She wanted to interact with him in more than the childish ways Gem and Dill and various other children were intending. She didn’t Just want to go and touch the Raddled house, and at the time she didn’t know she actually wanted to see more of Boo Raddled, she wanted to befriend him not Just be the cause of him bursting out of the front door in an annoyed tone for a 10 second glance.
She also gave him the experience of watching her and Gem grow up from his own front porch.
The chance to see a six year old girl and two ten year old boys fascinated bout his existence, reenacting his personal life, and as they slowly matured Into adulthood. These gifts may have seemed Like nothing to Scout but to a man who spent his life hiding they were his everyday life, his vague connection with the world. Nonetheless, Scout gave Boo a connection to the outside world. He spent all these years concealed in the security of his home. Undoubtedly, Boob’s attempts in interacting with them, and watching them, he started to participate in outside world.
His first act of participation took place when , Gem and Scout found the knothole in the tree. Boo had been placing these gifts there as an act of kindness, and friendship, proving that he isn’t as strange as Macomb presents him as. The gifts were a major part of Scout and Seems day. They were delighted and intrigued by them, until Nathan Raddled filled the knothole with cement. Ending all communication with Boo and the children. Without a doubt Boo found other ways to communicate and show kindness towards the children. Such as wrapping a cold and shivering Scout In a blanket, as she and Gem watched Miss Muddies house being eaten In flames.
In addition, Boo also gave Scout and Gem the gift of salvation. He cared enough to save Gem, as a pure act of kindness. Boo was no longer a stranger human being to them. But a friend, a friend who needed distance, a friend who needed privacy, but a friend. Moreover, as Boo was becoming a known person to Scout and Gem, he needed his distance. Even if he did save the children’s lives, he wanted privacy. Scout and Gem they gave him that, they did not tell a soul about what had happened. They kept being saved from Bob Lowell a secret. They kept Boo killing Bob Lowell a secret.
If the people in Macomb had found out about how nice of a guy Boo actually was; the owns people would overwhelm with kindness and gifts. Which is why as soon as the danger of Bob Lowell was overcome he went back into his shell. He vanished from the children’s lives once again. As stated in the novel “He gently released my hand, opened the door, went inside, and shut the door behind him. I never saw him again”. Boo had done his part in having the children grow up. They didn’t need him anymore. They had everything they had desired. In the long run, Scout may not have given Boo material gifts but she did give him psychological gifts.
She gave him the gift of friendship, by showing him the world isn’t as cruel as it seems, and interacting with him. She gifted him a slight connection with the world by exchanging kindness and curiosity. Nevertheless she gifted him the gift he was most pleased with and that was privacy. She never told a soul about him killing Bob Lowell. She left him alone, and he left her. Boo Raddled shaped Scouts childhood, and Scout she formed a smile on a Boo Reader’s face. A smile and happiness is the best gift anyone could give somebody. Scouts completely correct, she didn’t give him a gift, she gave him the experience of a lifetime.
Boo Radley Gifts. (2019, Dec 05). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-gifts-to-boo-radley/