Essay 4

Boo:

An Essay on Respecting Privacy
An Essay by Alexander Hawley
8th Grade English
Pine Point School
October 5, 2010

          When most people see something weird, they just ignore it, but when the kids from To Kill a Mockingbird see something weird, they try to find out more about it.  When these kids hear about Boo Radley, a very weird man across the street, they immediately go and try to find out more about him. This includes listening and, eventually, spreading rumors. It also includes trying to spy on Boo, and it includes trying to lure Boo out of his house.  The kids really shouldn’t be invading Mr. Radley’s privacy.      
          (TS) The two words "respect" and "privacy" are two different words with two different meanings, but it is important to use them together. (TS2) I think that Dill, Jem, and Scout need to respect Boo Radley's privacy more. (SD) There are always rumors going around about Boo because people want to know more about him and his whereabouts, so these curious people, or children, ask people about him and then get an answer that might not be true. (CM1) This invades his privacy because someone has to spy on him to figure all this stuff out. (CM2) Also, if everyone in town is hearing about him he doesn’t have privacy at all, and, to make it all worse, some of these things that everyone is hearing, really aren’t true. (SD) Furthermore, Dill, Jem, and Scout shouldn’t be trying to lure Boo out of his house because this totally invades Boo’s privacy. (CM1) If he wants to be in his house, then the kids should let him be in his house. (CM2) For example, this is a time when Jem invades Boo’s privacy by trying to get him to come out, “Jem threw open the gate, sped to side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us.” (CS) Privacy is a very important thing, and we, kids and adults alike, need to make sure we don’t invade other peoples.
          In Macomb County, the town where this book takes place, people are obviously not very respectful of other people’s privacy by doing things like spreading rumors.  When rumors are spread, they tell all about something that a person didn’t want you to know; therefore, invading his privacy.  Also, by trying to lure Boo out of his house, the kids are really invading his privacy. All that Boo really ever wanted was some privacy, so the kids should respect that and let him be.   

Self Assessment

1. I am still working on making various sentence lengths.
2. I think I did well with my punctuation by not over punctuating.
3. I think that the last sentence in the concluding paragraph might be a little awkward, but it still works.
4. I would give myself an A because I think this is my best essay yet