What superstitions do the children have in connection with the Radley house?

Answer 1

To say that the entire town of Maycomb, Alabama feared the Radley place is to overgeneralize the situation. Initially, Scout, Dill, and Jem fear the Radley place because of its occupants and decor. Furthermore, the neighborhood gossip, Miss Stephanie Crawford, propagates the rumors surrounding Boo Radley, namely that he stares in peoples' windows at night and that he stabbed his father. The children create fantasies about Boo in their minds and even believe at one point that he is dead and stuffed up the chimney. Jem describes Boo early in the novel as "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 was 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" (Harper 13). He is also described as a "malevolent phantom" (8). The Radley's house is also described in this way: "The shutters and doors...were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb's ways" (9). Many more descriptions are provided at the beginning of the novel, but as the children grow and mature, their views shift with them, and the Radley's become less of a source for superstitious radicalism.

As the novel progresses, however, the narrator Scout loses interest in antagonizing Boo. "Dill asked if I'd like to have a poke at Boo Radley. I said I didn't think it's be nice to bother him, and spent the rest of the afternoon filling Dill in on last winter's events" (Harper 148).

Answer 2

Children in the neighborhood believe that the Radley house is haunted and that Boo Radley, the reclusive occupant, is a malevolent presence. They also have superstitions that stepping on the Radley property or being too close to the house will bring bad luck or result in harm. These beliefs are fueled by rumors and stories passed down by older residents.