The Radley family is important to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for many reasons. First, the word mockingbirds is in the title, so it must be important to the theme and author's purpose. As learned in the novel, mockingbirds are symbols of innocence, vulnerability, and peace just like Boo Radley is. Therefore, how a person treats mockingbirds exposes his or her true character. Since Boo Radley can be viewed as a mockingbird, the way people treat him shows Scout and the reader exactly who those people really are inside.
There seems to be two kinds of people in Maycomb county: those who respect the vulnerable and innocent, and those who take advantage of them. And for some reason, the whole county gets caught up in the gossip, legend, and superstitions surrounding the mysterious Radleys and that is what makes their family so important in the book.
People like Stephanie Crawford get caught up in the gossip. She doesn't care about the Radleys so much as she cares for the attention she gets when she tells people like Jem the Radley's history. She even goes so far to tell Jem the following just for attention:
"He goes out, all right, when it's pitch dark. Miss Stephanie Crawford said she woke up in the middle of the night one time and saw him looking straight through the window at her. . . said his head was like a skull lookin' at her" (12-13).
Saying things like this is akin to hurting a mockingbird because it ignites children's imaginations.
Next, the children get caught up in the spooky legend of Boo Radley and they not only spread the rumors, but they start trying to make him come out of his house. Dill challenges Jem to touch the house, then they come up with the idea to put a letter through a window shutter asking Boo to come out. When Atticus catches wind that the children are playing out the Radley Family History in their yard, he says the following as told by Scout:
"What Mr. Radley did was his own business. If he wanted to come out, he would. If he wanted to stay inside his own house he had the right to stay inside free from the attentions of inquisitive children. . . we were to stay away from that house until we were invited there, we were not to play an asinine game he had seen us playing or make fun of anybody on this street or in this town" (49).
This lecture shows Atticus being a responsible father and teaching his kids not to be disrespectful to people who don't hurt or bother anyone--just like mockingbirds.
Finally, the community gets caught up in the superstition of the Radleys because Mr. Radley's reputation is a mean one. For example, Scout overhears Calpurnia say Mr. Radley is the meanest man in town and then sees her superstitiously spit to the side to keep off the evil. Also, school children won't eat the nuts that fall into the schoolyard from the Radley's house because the superstition is that they are poison and will kill them. Finally, Cecil Jacobs walks an extra long way to school to avoid passing by the Radley house and black folks won't walk by it at night.
The above-mentioned examples show how the Radley house and the family influence many different people in the community, so they are pretty important in this way. And, as stated above, Boo Radley is symbolic of a peaceful mockingbird who gets a bad rep without hurting anyone. Thus, the Radleys play a major role in the lives of almost everyone in Lee's story.
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