A couple days ago in class we saw a clip from the film, Doubt, about the effect of spreading rumors, and how hard it is to stop it from spreading further than you could have ever expected. The film clip showed a preacher talking to a woman about her false rumor, and how bad what she had done was. He explained the a rumor spreads like feathers when thrown off a roof top. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, there are rumors spread about the man, Boo Radley. He had grown up in a very strict religious house with little connection to the people in the neighborhood. Therefore, few knew the real him. It all went down him for him once he stabbed his father in the leg with scissors. After that nobody was really sure what happened to Boo, but people sure liked to talk about what they think happened to him. In the neighborhood, people regularly talk about the crazy Boo Radley and kids play games about him. This is extremely sad because from what the reader sees, Boo actually is just a product of his environment and is a nice person. But because these rumors spread about him, the ideals put into the peoples heads about him is almost unrepairable. Boo will most likely never be able to live a normal life even if he did decide to leave and was allowed by his brother Mr. Radley. You can see clearly peoples true feelings about Boo when Scout had a blanket put around her when her neighbors house caught on fire by who she thinks was Boo. People seemed nervous and when she realized it was Boo who had done it, she nearly threw up. It is really a shame what rumors do to scoeity today not only in our high school world, but in the world of polictics. If a person is aspiring to become someone high ranking in our government, and a completely false rumor comes out about them, even if they are proven innocent, they don't really have a chance anymore to do what they really wanted. Even when rumors are proven wrong, that rumor is forever imprinted on the minds of the people on the receiving end and they will always have that in the back of there mind. And I dont think its a coincident that we are being taught the effects of spreading rumors because we are in high school, where stereotypically the most rumors are spread. Actually I think the most rumors are spread in middle school, but thats besides the point. We have to learn eventually that even by spreading a little rumor or talking about people behind there backs, we can cause a lot of hardship and pain for that person, and once you make the decision to do it, there is no turning back the clock. Overall it seems like we will see more about the effects of the rumors spread about Boo Radley in the future sections of the book, and the clip from doubt really helps us understand why rumors spread the way they do and make us realize the implications of spreading one.
