How about this quote from chapter 30? Heck Tate is trying
to convince Atticus that it was NOT Jem who killed Bob Ewell. Atticus thinks it
was Jem and that Heck Tate is trying to say that Bob Ewell fell on
his knife to protect Jem, when really, Heck Tate is trying to protect Boo Radley. It was
Boo who stabbed Bob Ewell to protect Scout and Jem, who he has been watching over. Heck
Tate tells Atticus:
"I never heard tell that it's against the law
for a citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly
what he did, but maybe you'll say it's my duty to tell the town all
about it
and not hush it up. Know what'd happen then? All the ladies in Maycomb includin' my
wife'd be knocking on his door bringing angel food cakes. To my way of thinkin', Mr.
Finch, taking the one man
who's done you and this town a great service an'
draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight- to me, that's a sin. It's a sin and
I'm not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man, it'd be
different. But not this man, Mr.
Finch."
This shows that in
spite of being a recluse, in spite of being the subject of ridicule, Boo Radley was, in
fact, a pretty brave guy when it came to his secret "friends" - Scout and Jem. The
reader learns at the end of the novel that Boo has been doing more than just leaving
trinkets in the tree stump for Jem and Scout. He has been watching out for them and
winds up protecting them from a crazy drunk white trash lunatic, when the rest of the
citizens of Maycomb, including Atticus, Heck Tate and the police, could
not.
This is a good quote with which to end your essay,
since you are at the end of it. You do not need to use the entire quote, though. I think
it would be a good one to use to prove that Boo is brave. Many people are underestimated
in this novel, and Boo is perhaps one of the most underestimated. He turns out to be the
hero -- how about that? It is one of the great ironies of this novel that the person the
children have feared the most turns out to be the one who saves
them.
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