Near the end of To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley fought off Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell was trying to hurt Scout and Jem, who were walking home from a school pageant in the dark. Boo Radley defended the siblings and carried Jem home because he was injured. Boo waited quietly against the wall in the Finch house after he brought Jem there. Scout stared at Boo "in the dim light of Jem's room." This was the first time that she had seen him up close. She gazed at him with interest.
Scout noted "his sand-stained khaki pants" and "torn denim shirt." Boo was a thin man. She also noticed how his "face was as white as his hands" and his eyes were gray. The last thing that Scout noticed about Boo was his hair. Scout saw that it "was dead and thin." She described Boo's hair as being "almost feathery on top of his head." This was most likely a subtle reference to the feathers of a mockingbird. Shortly after, Scout told her father that going after Boo for the death of Bob Ewell would be "'like shootin' a mockingbird.'"
When Scout watched Boo and noticed his features, she saw him as a human being. He was no longer a mysterious, legendary figure. He was not scary, as she had once imagined him to be. Instead, he was a timid man with worn features.
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