NOVEL - JASPER JONES AND TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - COMPARING TWO CHARACTERS

JASPER JONES AND TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – COMPARING TWO SIMILAR CHARACTERS

Mad Jack Lionel/Boo Radley

Mad Jack Lionel: ‘Mad Jack is a character of much speculation and intrigue for the kids of Corrigan. No child has actually laid eyes on him. There are full-chested claimants of sightings and encounters, but they’re quickly exposed as liars. But the tall stories and rumours all weave wispily around one single irrefutable fact: that Jack Lionel killed a young woman some years ago and he’s never been seen outside his house since...A popular test in Corrigan is to steal something from the property of Mad Jack Lionel. Rocks and flowers and assorted debris are all rushed back proudly from the high dry-grass sprawl of his front yard to be examined with wonder. But the rarest and most revered feat is to snatch a peach from the large tree that grows by the flank of the cottage like a zombie’s hand bursting from a grave. To pilfer and eat a peach from the property of Mad Jack Lionel assures you instant royalty’. (pp. 3-4)

Boo Radley: ‘Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him. People said he went out at night when the moon was high, and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them. Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work. Once the town was terrorized by a series of morbid nocturnal events: people’s chickens and household pets were found mutilated; although the culprit was Crazy Addie, people still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions’. (p. 15)

What purpose do the Boo Radley’s and Mad Jack Lionel’s of the world fulfill?

In TKAM Scout and Jem are obsessed with the idea of touching the Radley place and passing a note to Boo; just as in Jasper Jones the children are obsessed with stealing peach pits from Mad Jack Lionel.

In what ways is the Jasper Jones character Mad Jack Lionel a Boo Radley parallel?

MAD JACK LIONEL	BOO RADLEY
a character of much speculation and intrigue for the kids of Corrigan	a character of much speculation and intrigue for the kids of Maycomb -  ‘a malevolent phantom’
No child has actually laid eyes on him.	No child has actually laid eyes on him.
claims of sightings and encounters	claims of sightings and encounters – Boo supposedly crept out at night when the moon was high and peeped in windows
Jack Lionel killed a young woman some years ago and he’s never been seen outside his house since...	Any crime that took place was Boo’s work
A popular test in Corrigan is to steal something from the property of Mad Jack Lionel – peach pits	Jem, Scout and Dill steal something from the property of Boo Radley – want to touch his place and pass a note to Boo
Rocks and flowers and assorted debris are all rushed back proudly from the high dry-grass sprawl of his front yard to be examined with wonder	Jem, Scout and Dill are fascinated by Boo Radley’s yard