Just as Jem and Scout have spent much of the past two years trying to catch a glimpse of--and possibly meeting--Boo Radley, the mysterious spectre of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, has also been keeping an eye on the Finch children. After Boo comes to the rescue of the kids near the end of the novel, he waits patiently inside the Finch house and then on their porch as Sheriff Tate discusses the death of Bob Ewell with Atticus. For the first and only time in the novel, Boo speaks to Scout:
"Will you take me home?"
He almost whispered it, in the voice of a child afraid of the dark.
This was a rare moment for Boo--being at another person's house and in the light--and he was frightened. When Scout returned him to the Radley Place, she turned to look from the porch. It was a new and different look for her--both realistically and metaphorically--because she was seeing life in Maycomb from a totally different angle of view as well as from a whole new perspective.
Atticus' line about people being nice "when you finally see them," also has dual meanings. Scout had seen Boo for the first time, and he WAS nice. He was not a monster; he was kind and gentle and he had saved her life. Atticus also meant that when you see them after "you stand in his shoes," you can understand a person's actions much clearer afterward.
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