Post by hayleycurrin on Aug 12, 2016 17:47:35 GMT
"The Radley place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end..." (Page 6)
"The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate grey yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard- a "swept" yard that was never swept- where Johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance." (Page 8)
The Radley house is described as dark, gloomy, and seemingly deserted every time it is described throughout the book. Eventually you get this "haunted house on a hill" idea about the place even though it may just be a broken down old shack. There is a lot of symbolism in that fact. The Radleys are this family that has been in hiding ever since their son went "mad". In the early 1900s insanity or mental illness of any kind was a horrible and shameful thing often "fixed" by shock treatments, lobotomies, and general medical abuse at an asylum where family was rarely ever seen again. The Radleys refused to send Arthur to an asylum and the Radleys became all but forgotten by the citizens of Maycomb. In the deep south where this novel is set, there were a great many things that were shameful and shameful things were banished from memory. If you weren't Christian, white, and exactly like everyone else, you were an outcast and that's what the Radleys became. The house was a visual interpretation of those that were outcast and banished from mind in Maycomb county. Still, much like the secrets held within the town, they never went away no matter how hard anyone ever tried to forget. Do you think that the people of Maycomb were right to try and forget or were they denying things when they should have been thinking of a solution?
"The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate grey yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard- a "swept" yard that was never swept- where Johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance." (Page 8)
The Radley house is described as dark, gloomy, and seemingly deserted every time it is described throughout the book. Eventually you get this "haunted house on a hill" idea about the place even though it may just be a broken down old shack. There is a lot of symbolism in that fact. The Radleys are this family that has been in hiding ever since their son went "mad". In the early 1900s insanity or mental illness of any kind was a horrible and shameful thing often "fixed" by shock treatments, lobotomies, and general medical abuse at an asylum where family was rarely ever seen again. The Radleys refused to send Arthur to an asylum and the Radleys became all but forgotten by the citizens of Maycomb. In the deep south where this novel is set, there were a great many things that were shameful and shameful things were banished from memory. If you weren't Christian, white, and exactly like everyone else, you were an outcast and that's what the Radleys became. The house was a visual interpretation of those that were outcast and banished from mind in Maycomb county. Still, much like the secrets held within the town, they never went away no matter how hard anyone ever tried to forget. Do you think that the people of Maycomb were right to try and forget or were they denying things when they should have been thinking of a solution?
