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To
kill a Mockingbird Summary: Chapter 5
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Jem and Dill have become closer friends, and Scout, being a girl, finds herself
often excluded from her play. Dill has in childish fashion decided to get engaged
to Scout, but now he and Jem play together often and Scout finds herself unwelcome.
She often sits with their neighbor, the avid gardener Miss Maudie Atkinson,
and watches the sun set on her front steps or partakes of Miss Maudie's fine
cake. Miss Maudie is honest is her speech and her ways, with a witty tongue,
and Scout considers her a trusted friend. Scout asks her one day about Boo Radley,
and Miss Maudie says that he's still alive, he just doesn't like to come outside.
She also says that most of the rumors about him aren't true. Miss Maudie explains
that the Radleys are foot-washing Baptists -they believe all pleasure is a sin
against God, and stay inside most of the time reading the Bible. She says that
Arthur was a nice boy when she used to know him.
The next day Jem and Dill hatch a plan to go leave a note for Boo in the Radleys'
window, using a fishing line. The note will ask him to come out sometimes and
tell them what he's doing inside, and that they won't hurt him and will buy
him ice cream. Dill says he wants Boo to come out and sit with them for a while,
as it might make the man feel better. Dill and Scout keep watch in case anyone
comes along, and Jem tries to deliver the note with the fishing pole, but finds
that it's harder to maneuver than he expected. As he struggles, Atticus arrives
and catches them all. He tells them to stop tormenting Boo, and lectures them
about how Boo has a right to his privacy, and they shouldn't go near the house
unless they're invited. He accuses them of putting Boo's life history on display
for the edification of the neighborhood. Jem says that he didn't say they were
doing that, and thus inadvertently admits that they were doing just that. Atticus
caught him with "the oldest lawyer's trick on record."
Analysis
Though Atticus tries to encourage the children to leave Boo alone, their senses
of sympathy have begun to be summoned up by thinking about Boo's solitude and
his strict upbringing. Though still frightened of him, they wish to befriend
him and help him now. Miss Maudie's description of Boo helps the children to
understand him as a victim of his upbringing.
Miss Maudie is one of the only women that Scout respects and is friendly with.
Calpurnia and Miss Maudie are the main motherly influences in her life - while
Aunt Alexandra attempts to impose herself as a maternal substitute, she wants
to turn Scout into a "lady" against her will. Miss Maudie is the most
unbiased and supportive of these three women, though Calpurnia becomes much
more sympathetic as time goes by.
Miss Maudie is obsessed with her flowerbeds, and goes about tending them despite
the disapproval of the "foot-washing Baptists," who occasionally accuse
her of spending too much time in such vain earthly pursuits. Miss Maudie is
opposed to these staunch, strict ideas but she is also religious, showing that
perhaps she finds a relationship between maintaining beautiful things in the
world and connecting with God. This ties in again with the idea that laws can
lose their meaning if they are taken to literal extremes. Just as in the case
of the Ewells hunting out of season, some things are more important than following
the letter of the law exactly. The very religious Radleys stay indoors all day
and create recluses out of themselves, rarely participating in community affairs,
except during emergencies. Miss Maudie, however, seems to think that serving
living things - whether human or floral - is an important part of serving God.
There is no one clear way to worship God, but the chapter suggests that reading
the Bible inside all day may be an application of God's law which, like the
hunting law when applied to the Ewell's, becomes self-defeating if applied too
severely. In both cases, the maintaining of life (Mr. Ewell's children or Miss
Maudie's flowers) is more important than observing the strictest codes. Miss
Maudie also believes in the importance of pleasure and the enjoyment of life.
