To Kill a Mockingbird

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley kills Bob Ewell. On Halloween night, Bob Ewell attacks Scout and Jem as they walk home in the dark. During the struggle, Mr. Ewell is stabbed to death, and the man who saved the children is revealed to be Boo Radley. Boo intervenes to protect them and, in doing so, kills Ewell.

Afterward, Sheriff Heck Tate decides to report that Ewell fell on his knife, rather than expose Boo. This decision protects Boo from public attention and legal trouble, since bringing him into the spotlight would harm someone who acted only to save the children.

This event completes Boo’s transformation in Scout’s eyes from a feared, mysterious figure into a protector. It also ties into the novel’s idea of the “mockingbird”: harming someone like Boo, who only helps others, would be deeply wrong.