Was TKAM’s Boo Radley really a vampire?

Robert Duvall as 'Boo Radley' in 1962.

Halloween is a little over a week away, and with that spooky holiday in mind, I’d like to revisit one of my favorite arguments. For several years, I’ve gotten a kick out of defending the idea that Harper Lee’s world-famous novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is really a thinly-veiled horror novel. While it’s not an in-your-face horror story like those by Stephen King or Edgar Allan Poe, a close examination of “TKAM” will show that there is a lot in the book to prove that it’s a horror novel.

Right out of the gate, we learn that the Finch family – Atticus, Jem and Scout – live next door to the mysterious Radley family. A close reading of the novel lets us know that the Radley house is nothing more than the neighborhood haunted house, and that it’s occupied by the local boogeyman, Arthur “Boo” Radley. Among other things, the house was said to have a “dreary face,” that it was “droopy and sick” and that children believe that a “haint” or “phantom” lived there.

The Radley house was also feared by other children in the town, including Scout’s schoolmate Cecil Jacobs. Cecil lived on the same street as the Finches, at the far end next door to the post office. He was so afraid of the Radley house that he walked a mile out of the way each day to keep from passing it on his way to school.

Also consider that just a few pages into Chapter One, when Jem and Scout first meet Charles Baker Harris, aka, “Dill,” the children bond over a discussion of the world-famous vampire, Count Dracula. Dill gains Jem’s respect when Jem learns that seven-year-old Dill had seen the movie “Dracula” in the theatre. Dill recounts the movie to Jem, who said the movie sounded better than Bram Stoker’s book, which was published in 1897.

While it may be a stretch, I think you could also make the argument that Boo Radley was a vampire. We all know that sunlight will reduce a vampire to ashes, and I think it’s important to note that there isn’t one single scene in the entire novel where Boo makes an appearance during the day. He’s always seen at night, and is often described as prowling around and looking in the windows of sleeping neighbors.

Jem tells Dill that Boo “dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch.” Boo’s hands were said to be “blood-stained” and that he had a “long jagged scar across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.”

Later in the book, when Scout comes face to face with Boo, she describes him as having a face “as white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide; there were shallow, almost delicate indentations at his temples, and his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind.”

Also let us not forget that the novel’s ultimate climax takes place on Halloween night 1935. It’s on this night that Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout as they walk through the dark woods between their school and home. Ewell’s attack is foiled by none other than Boo Radley, who was again stalking the night.

In addition to all of that, the novel is full of other references to superstitions and the supernatural, including incantations, secret signs, “hot steams,” changelings, mandrake roots and a host of other unusual subjects.

In the end, let me know if you’ve spotted any other references to superstitions or the supernatural in “TKAM.” No doubt there are other references that I have missed. I’m sure there is even more evidence between the pages of “TKAM” to shore up the idea that the novel is a thinly-veiled horror novel.