The truth about Boo is unknown. However, there is no point at which anyone, even Atticus, says that the scissors story is untrue. In fact, at the end of Chapter 5, when the kids are really pushing to get Boo to come out and they're re-enacting the stabbing scene all the time, Atticus says that it isn't right to parade someone's family history that way. So, that implies that the story has some truth, doesn't it? There is also no question that he was jailed in the town jail for some time, before being sent home.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I can't remember Atticus saying that, but if he did then I think that it is good evidence that Boo did indeed stab his father.
Also, I have a lot of trouble with the assumption that Boo is harmless. After all, what does he do at the end? Stab and kill Ewell, the villain.
Does killing a person just about to murder two children that Boo was obviously fond of really make him a bad person? Read any other novel, watch any other movie and the guy who kills the villain is the hero. What makes it different in this case? Because he has social difficulties? In my eyes, that makes him more heroic because not only did he have to overcome his fear of death from defending the children, but he also had to struggle with his intense fears keeping him from venturing outside.
Perhaps he did stab his father, and if he did there is no way that we could ever know
why. To assume that he did so because he is some crazy psychopath would be erroneous, especially given his actions in the last few chapters of the novel. It is possible that he was psychopathic and that he was rehabilitated, but I think that it is clear by the end of the novel that he is not the loon that he is held to be in popular opinion.
Plus, here's this truly odd nutty guy who won't leave his house and spies on the kids. Why would anyone think he's harmless?
Using the word "spies" gives his actions a negative connotation that I don't think they deserve. Of course he was interesed in these kids who would not leave him alone, who were insistent on spying on
him. I got the impression from his actions that Boo was far less mature than he should have been at his age (did it ever say how old he was?), and so I think it's even more reasonable that he was intrigued by these kids, by the idea of someone you could relate to, to the idea of friends. I don't think that you can look at the gifts in a negative light because they were not given to the children with ulterior motives in mind. He never tried anything with them, never tried to lure them with the gifts, and therefore I don't think that you can view the gift-giving in the same light as some dirty old man trying to get kids to grab sweeties from his pocket. I think that he truely wanted to do something nice for these kids, to finally reach out to someone who existed outside his walls. I saw the children as a rehabilitation tool for Boo, something that would give him an incentive to finally get over his fear of the outside world, not something that he preyed upon.
But as a character, if you read closely, his actions (spying, stabbing Ewell, the weird little gifts left for the kids), he's pretty scary.
Scary if you don't understand his personality and his consequent actions. Of course he sounds like a dememted nutter when you list the things he did, but it was the intentions behind the actions that are more important. His intentions changes everything, and until you understand Boo, you can never pass a fair judgement on his actions.
Just as a little aside - could you really call him a nutter just because he doesn't go outside? For all we know he could have had agoraphobia - my father had this when I was younger and didn't venture outside for 14 months. This doesn't make him insane. Plus, if Boo is scared of going outside than of course all he can do is watch (or "spy"). This doesn't necessarily make his actions sinister.
