Everyone has both a public appearance and a private reality. In life, people’s perception of who other people really are is almost always heavily blurred. In To Kill a Mockingbird, this is definitely true with Dolphus Raymond, Arthur Radley (Boo), and Tom Robinson. Dolphus Raymond, Arthur Radley, and Tom Robinson are all discriminated against because of people’s distorted perception of them. Who they really are is much different than who people think they are. Dolphus Raymond’s appearance to most people is that of an alcoholic. He only pretends to drink alcohol when in fact he is drinking cola. He does this so other people can easily justify his life. To the general public, Arthur Radley’s appearance is of a violent psychopath. In reality, …show more content…
Arthur Radley (Boo) was seen as a monster by lots of people including Jem and Scout. No one in Maycomb was able to see Arthur’s good side. When Scout was attacked the night of the Halloween Concert the Finches realize that Boo can still be a good person, even though, what he had allegedly done to his father, stabbing him with scissors. His appearance to the public is described by the narrator using a story Miss Stephanie had told the children, in the first few chapters of the novel, “...Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing. According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the livingroom cutting some items from The Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities. Mrs. Radley ran screaming into the street that Arthur was killing them all, but when the sheriff arrived he found Boo still sitting in the livingroom, cutting up the Tribune. He was thirty-three years old then” Miss Stephanie’s story shows what the general public thinks of Boo. No one really knew what Boo was like because …show more content…
Boo had once gone to trial for stabbing his father in the leg but was briefly kept in the basement of the court house instead of the normal jail because “The sheriff hadn’t the heart to put him in jail alongside Negroes”. Mr. Radley didn't want his son to go to jail, he insisted that “was not a criminal”. When it was suggested that Boo be sent to an asylum called Tuscaloosa his father said “no Radley was going to any asylum”. Boo’s true self is shown when he allegedly rescues Scout and Jem from Mr. Ewell who had tried to attack them with a knife. Scout and Jem were walking home from the Halloween concert when they heard what they thought was someone walking behind them. They were a little bit scared but thought it was properly just there friend Cecil trying to scare them again, they were wrong. Mr Radley had attacked them and tried to kill them with a knife. We know he had a knife because Scout had a big cut through the thick material in her costume that would have had to be cut be something very sharp. Boo then comes out of nowhere and attacks Mr. Ewell with his own knife. Boo stabbed him under the ribs so the children could run away from him. Boo then carried Jem back to the Finches house. When Arthur was on the porch ready to leave Atticus says the following to him “When he got up and walked across the porch into the shadows, his youthful step had returned. Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo