years. During his time with them, Boo apparently participated in social activities that disturbed the neighborhood peace.

As the story goes, the group of teens acted out of an abundance of mischief rather than malice. They ostensibly stole a car and then resisted arrest by the town beadle Mr. Conner. In addition, the boys locked Mr. Conner in the courthouse outhouse.

As a result, the boys had to appear before a probate judge. The judge sent the boys to the state industrial school. In Boo's case, his father intervened, convincing the judge to hand the boy over to his custody. The judge agreed, and this led to Boo's permanent confinement in the Radley home. In fact, Boo was not heard from again for 15 years.

Jem hears gossip that at the age of 33, Boo stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. The sheriff incarcerated Boo in the basement of the courthouse for a time and then released him to his father's custody. From the text, we learn that Mr. Radley (Boo's father) had not wanted to entertain the idea of an asylum for Boo. Instead, he made the decision to "keep" his son at home.

According to Miss Maudie, Mr. Radley is a "foot-washing Baptist" who is "so busy worrying about the next world" that he "never learned to live in this one." In other words, Miss Maudie is saying that Mr. Radley is the reason Boo is a social outcast:

Miss Maudie stopped rocking, and her voice hardened. “You are too young to understand it,” she said, “but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father.”

So, to return to your question: Scout says that revealing the truth would be like shooting a mockingbird. She understands that exposing Boo to the glare of public scrutiny could lead to a negative outcome for someone who saved her life. Although the truth may engender affirmation and social acceptance for Boo, it could also make him the target of even more gossip due to his controversial history in Maycomb. Scout understands that as a shy, quiet man, Boo likely would prefer not to be the subject of further rumors and scrutiny from the rest of the town.

In chapter 10, while they are out in the yard shooting their air rifles, Atticus tells Jem and Scout that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Miss Maudie then elaborates on Atticus's comment by telling the children that it is considered a sin to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent, defenseless beings that spread joy to the world. Throughout the novel, mockingbirds symbolically represent any harmless, vulnerable person who is compassionate and helps others. Both Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are considered symbolic mockingbirds in the novel and rely on the help of others to protect them from malevolent individuals.

Following Bob Ewell's attack, Atticus and Sheriff Tate discuss who was responsible for Bob's death, and Atticus initially believes that his son killed Bob. After listening to Atticus argue about his son's involvement, Sheriff Tate indirectly states that Boo Radley killed Bob Ewell. However, Sheriff Tate refuses to tell the community about Boo's heroics because he knows that it will only bring unwanted attention to the shy, reclusive man. When Atticus asks Scout if she understands Sheriff Tate's reasoning, she says,

"Well, it’d be sort of like shootin‘ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?" (Lee, 280).

Scout metaphorically applies her father's lesson about not shooting mockingbirds to Boo Radley's situation. Scout recognizes that Sheriff Tate is attempting to protect Boo from the community's limelight because he knows that the publicity will harm Boo. Similar to a vulnerable mockingbird, Boo cannot protect himself from the community's spotlight, and Sheriff Tate takes the initiative to prevent everyone in Maycomb from discovering Boo's heroics.

In Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, young Scout does not like to look at Mrs. Dubose any more than she must. Mrs. Dubose is so old that her wrinkles are very deep, she has liver spots, and she drools profusely. In chapter 11, Scout accompanies her brother to Mrs. Dubose's house to read to her. On the first day that the children visit her, Scout describes Mrs. Dubose as follows:

"Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin . . . from time to time she would draw her nether lip to her upper plate and carry her chin with it. This made the wet move faster" (106).

Through Scout's analysis of Mrs. Dubose's physical appearance, there seems to be a significant amount of drooling going on. Scout's description mostly focuses on Mrs. Dubose's face, but she also notices her old hands and "knobby knuckles," which must look terrifying to a young girl. The first physical description of Boo Radley is given by Jem in chapter 1 as follows:

"Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time" (13).

One common denominator between the description of Mrs. Dubose and the one for Boo Radley is the drooling. There is also a connection between the scar on Boo's face and the deep wrinkles found on Mrs. Dubose's. These details provide visual images that are usually associated with villains or monsters as children might interpret them.

In the final chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout walks Boo Radley home after he has rescued Jem and her from the harm that Bob Ewell attempted.  As she stands on the porch of the Radley's, Scout surveys her neighborhood from a new point of view, that of Boo Radley:

Atticus was right.  One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.  Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.

For Scout, the realization comes that Boo has, indeed, been a mockingbird--one who has never caused anyone harm, but also one who has been judged by the "songs of others."  That is, she realizes that others in town had put "songs" into Boo's mouth that were imitations of their judgments rather than what Boo had actually done.  When she returns home, Scout tells her father,"Atticus, he was real nice...."  Atticus comments, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."

The mockingbird is an important symbol throughout the novel. It represents innocence and good-heartedness, and Atticus says it’s a sin to kill one. According to Scout, that is the only thing that Atticus labels as a sin. She asks Miss Maudie about it who agrees, saying that mockingbirds never do anything to hurt anybody, they only want to bring joy to others with their singing. In this way the mockingbird symbolises people who are simply and instinctively good and kind, like Tom Robinson and the town recluse, Boo Radley. Tom Robinson’s death, for instance, is compared to ‘the senseless slaughter of songbirds’ (like mockingbirds) by the town editor Mr Underwood.

Scout invokes the mockingbird in relation to Boo Radley at the very close of the novel, after he saves her and Jem from the depraved Bob Ewell who attacked them in the dark. Sherriff Tate declares that he doesn’t want this made public. Boo has proved himself a hero in saving the children, but as Tate realizes, it would be a shame to make him suffer by ‘draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight.’ In fact, according to Tate, this would be nothing short of a ‘sin’, bringing such a shy man into the glare of public attention. This is what Scout later comments on. She says to Atticus that ‘Mr Tate was right, and remarks that:’It’d be sort of like shooting a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?'

Scout is agreeing with Tate that Boo would suffer if he was suddenly thrust into the midst of society – the society that has ignored his existence up till now. She realises that society would hurt him, just as it hurt the other innocent, Tom Robinson. People of simple goodness like these two are misunderstood and mistreated by society at large. Scout doesn’t actually mention Boo by name when she makes the remark about the mockingbird, but the reader is meant to understand that she is referring to him through this particular symbol.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses the mockingbird to symbolize innocence and purity.  Like the mockingbird, though Scout may have her flaws just like the rest of us, she can generally be considered innocent and pure, characteristics that actually develop more fully as the novel progresses.

We learn of the symbol of the mockingbird and its meaning in two different places. First, in Chapter 10, Atticus warns Jem and Scout not to shoot at any mockingbirds with their new Christmas air riffles, saying, "[I]t's a sin to kill a mockingbird." When Scout asks Miss Maudie for an explanation, Miss Maudie agrees with Scout's father and tells her the following:

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. (Ch. 10)

The symbolism of the mockingbird is further revealed when, after Tom Robinson's unfortunate death, Mr. Underwood, editor and owner of The Maycomb Tribune, draws a parallel between Robinson and a mockingbird, saying, as Scout paraphrases, "[I]t was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping" (Ch. 255). Scout further paraphrases, "He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children" (Ch. 25). Since mockingbirds are songbirds, we know that when Mr. Underwood uses the word songbird, he too is thinking of mockingbirds and calling Robinson an innocent man.

Early in the novel, though it is a bit more difficult to see Scout as an innocent songbird due to her tomboyish nature and other character flaws, as the novel progresses, Scout's nature actually improves and becomes more benevolent. At the start of the novel, Scout is a nuisance by virtue of the fact that she has a hotheaded temper, which makes her quick to pick physical fights. She is also guilty of prejudiced and racist beliefs, which can be seen in her reactions towards and treatment of Arthur (Boo) Radley and in the fact that she refers to Tom Robinson as "just a Negro" when Dill explains to her why he started crying during Robinson's trial (Ch. 19). Yet, by the end of the novel, the obvious kindness Arthur had showered upon her helps her dispel her prejudices, and the outcome of Robinson's trial helps her recognize and begin to reject racist beliefs. She is even infuriated when she hears her third-grade teacher speak out against Hitler's treatment of the Jews after having already heard her say hypocritically slanderous things about Maycomb's African-American population while exiting the courthouse after Robinson's trial. Scout's temper has even been quieted, and she no longer reacts violently.

Hence, by the end of the novel, Scout has developed into the sort of songbird that does nothing but strive to give people pleasure all day long. She even best exemplifies her mockingbird-like nature when, the night Arthur rescues the children, she shows him the respect he deserves by escorting him home with her arm linked through his so that they looked like a proper gentleman and lady walking together to any prying eyes, like those of Miss Stephanie Crawford.