Boo Radley's "history of violence" is more myth than
reality. As Miss Maudie tells the children in Chapter 5, the stories about Boo are
"three-fourths colored and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford," meaning they are a
combination of superstition and fantasy. However, because he has been so repressed in
his home, Boo could possibly have struck out at his father who refused to let him
leave. After all, such an action is not uncommon for desperate
people.
In his loneliness, Boo has made efforts to be in
communion with the children, if only vicariously as he stealthily watches them. His
mending of Jem's pants on the night when the children came to the windows in a dare and
Jem tore his pants on the wire fence in flight from Mr. Radley's shotgun, along with his
little gifts hidden in the knothole of the tree all indicate his efforts to establish
friendship as well as the value that some kind of relationship holds for
him.
So, while such a distanced relationship would not mean
much to others, to the isolated Boo, his "friendship" with Jem and Scout is of paramount
value. When he discovers that the children are threatened by the rapscallion Bob Ewell,
Boo again becomes the desperate person who seeks to protect what he values greatly. For
a shy recluse like Boo, there can be no efforts to talk Ewell out of his act that would
be effective. Boo, in his panic and fear for the children that he must commit a
desperate act--he stabs Ewell who is of no value to him whatsoever, while the children
certainly are.
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