It's difficult to answer this question without knowing
which chapter(s) you're studying, but based on some of your words ("growing up," "coming
of age," "former games," "previous activities"), I'll respond with the assumption that
you're referencing Part 2 of the novel.
As the novel's
focus shifts from the children's fascination (or even obsession) with Boo Radley to the
Tom Robinson trial in Part 2, Scout seems to care less and less about seeing Boo. In
chapter 15, Scout says, "Dill asked if I'd like to have a poke at Boo Radley. I said I
didn't think it'd be nice to bother him... (148)--a sign that she realizes the futility
of their attempts to catch a glimpse of Boo and also the fact that Boo probably enjoys
his privacy.
More importantly, chapter 26 gives readers
invaluable information into Scout's moral development. In a passage of narration, Scout
says,
The
Radley Place had ceased to terrify me, but it was no less gloomy, no less chilly under
its great oaks, and no less uninviting. Mr Nathan Radley could still be seen on a clear
day, walking to and from town; we knew Boo was there, for the same old reason--nobody'd
seen him carried out yet. I sometimes felt a twinge of remores, when passing by the old
place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur
Radley--what reasonable recluse wants children peeping through his shutters, delivering
greetings on the end of a fishing-pole, wandering in his collards at
night?
A few paragraphs
later, Scout voices "a stray desire just to have one good look at Boo Radley before
[she] died." In response, Atticus says,
readability="12">
You aren't starting that again, are you?...If
you are, I'll tell you right now: stop it. I'm too old to go chasing you off the Radley
property. Besides, it's dangerous. You might get shot. You know Mr. Nathan shoots at
every shadow he sees, even shadows that leave size-four footprints. You were lucky not
to be killed.
This response
by Atticus shocks and quiets Scout, as she was sure that Atticus believed his own report
that Mr. Radley had shot at a "prowler" in the above-mentioned
incident.
As Scout notes, so much had happened regarding
the Tom Robinson trial that Boo Radley was one of the last subjects on her
mind.
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