The last part of your question, "Why is Boo always inside
the house?" can be mostly answered from the telling of the neighborhood legend in the
middle of chapter 1. Arthur Radley, (Boo's real name) while a teenager, had fallen in
with the wrong crowd. One night, he and some Cunninghams "backed around the square in a
borrowef flivver, resisted arrest by Maycombs ancient beadle, Mr. Connor, and locked him
in the county courthouse."
The boys were charged with
disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, and using abusive and
profane language in the presence and hearing of a female. The probate judge decided to
send the boys to the state industrial school-- not a prison. But Arthur's father asked
the judge to release Arthur to him. "The doors of the Radley house were closed on
weekdays as well as Sundays, and Mr. Radley's boy was not seen again for fifteen
years."
The account goes on to describe what we would call
a disfunctional family, child abuse, and a number of personality and social disorders,
and mental illnesses.
The narrative leads in to Dill's
hatching the plot to draw Boo out into view.
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