Arthur Radley Prejudice

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Both the Radleys, specifically Arthur “Boo” Radley, and Tom Robinson have a lot of prejudice surrounding them. Though the type of prejudice towards them is different, they are connected through the shared experience of being looked down upon. The Radley family is feared because they don’t fit into the norm of the society. Unlike many of the residents, they choose to keep to themselves. After a weird story involving a “gang,” Arthur Radley has mostly stayed in inside his house and is rumored to go outside during the night and terrorize the community. Another rumor surrounding Arthur involves him cutting items from a newspaper to put into a scrapbook and as his father walked by, “Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, …show more content…

Arthur is seen in numerous instances where he is being nice and helpful to the Finch children. The first time the reader notices his kindness the when the kids begin to find treasures in a tree outside of the Radley house. Again he is seen being nice when he puts a blanket around Scout is the cold of the night. Lastly, his helpfulness is clearly seen when he was able to save the children from a crazed Mr. Ewell. He still chooses to be a nice person in the face of the discrimination the entire community has towards him. The ability to remain a nice person in the face of racism is evident through Tom Robinson. Although the trial attempts to make Tom look like an appalling person to society, his actions and truthfulness prevails to the reader even if the community is unable to acknowledge his niceness. Through his testimony in court, Tom seen helping Mayella numerous times with no compensation and expecting nothing in return. Even though it breaks a time-honored code, the two are nice towards each other. He assists Mayella in numerous tasks and notices that she receives little to no help from her family; in fact she is lonely. Out of niceness he justifies his actions by saying, “I felt sorry for her, she seemed to try more than the rest of them” (157). This shows he is a sympathetic person even in

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