Depending upon how far along you have read in To Kill
a Mockingbird, you have probably already discovered that Boo is both mysterious and
invisible to nearly everyone. Apparently, aside from his family, only Atticus and the town doctor
have seen him in recent years. Miss Maudie describes him as a nice, polite boy when he was a
teenager, but little is known about him until the very end of the novel. In the last chapters,
Boo finally makes his appearance, and Scout gets to observe him up
close.
His face was as
white as his hands... His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide... and his grey eyes
were so colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin...
A strange
small spasm shook him... but as I gazed at him in wonder the tension drained from his face. His
lips parted into a timid
smile...
Scout's brief encounter with
Boo doesn't reveal much about his personality, but she comes to understand that he must have been
watching out for her during the walk home from the Halloween pageant. When Boo spoke for the only
time, it was in a whisper. He gently took Scout's hand when she walked him home, and it was the
last time she would ever see him. She later stood on the Radley porch, looking out upon the
neighborhood as if through Boo's eyes. He was no longer a night prowler, but a concerned neighbor
who gave secret gifts, watched children play, and came to their aid when he was needed.
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