In "To Kill a Mockingbird," Boo Radley figures as a person who fits the first line of a poem by William Wordsworth: "The World is too much with us." For, Boo who at one time in his youth rebelled against his fanatical father by fighting back, was severely punished. Now, misunderstood by the exterior world, he sequesters himself from the world in a manner not unlike Emily Dickinson. And, like Miss Dickinson, Boo is a sensitive and delicate soul, loving and kind albeit misunderstood.
It is significant that his name is "Boo," a name that reminds the reader of a ghost as his is a persona more like a spiritual element than a human. His small acts of love touch the hearts of the children, and he only "appears" when they are in danger. In the panoply of characters in Lee's novel, Boo represents the human spirit that must be protected and revered else it will die as it does in the other "spirit-like" character, Tom Robinson.
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