Chapter 5 answers

Chapter 5
• Describe Miss Maudie Atkinson? How typical is she of Maycomb's women? What do the children think of her?
Miss Maudie Atkinson - The Finches’ neighbor, a sharp-tongued widow, and an old friend of the family. Miss Maudie is almost the same age as Atticus’s younger brother, Jack. Miss Maudie keeps to herself except when a neighbor is in need. Unlike most of Maycomb's other townspeople, Maudie's friendship also extends to the town's black citizens. She shares Atticus’s passion for justice and is the children’s best friend among Maycomb’s adults.

• What does Miss Maudie tell Scout about Boo? How does this compare with what Scout already believes?
Miss Maudie told Scout that Boo is still alive, and he just stays in his house. She says that Boo's father is a "foot-washing" Baptist who believed that most people will go to Hell. Also, that Boo was always polite and spoke nicely when he was a kid

• Scout claims that “Dill could tell the biggest ones ” (lies) she ever heard. Why might Dill have told such lies?
Divorce & single-parenthood (outside of that brought about through the death of a spouse) were very shameful things in the 1930's. Dill was an outsider simply because of his birth. The aunt he stayed with was a gossip, so you can bet the whole town knew about Dill's situation and probably talked about him. He knew it, and he tried to compensate by creating a world that was better than what he had. His escape was his imagination where he could pick his family, make his father a hero, and make himself loved.

• What reasons does Atticus give for the children not to play the Boo Radley game? Do you think he is right? Why?
The children, Scout, Jem, and Dill, have been acting out their ideas about the Radleys in much the same way they had previously acted out stories they had read. This shows that they view the family as just a part of their fictional games. They don't see the Radleys as real people and the don't realize that their game may be hurtful to real humans behind the Radley windows. Atticus catches them and orders them to “stop tormenting that man” with either notes or the “Boo Radley” game. As an adult, Atticus can see the real hurt the game may be causing. In a quiet way, he reminds the children that “What Mr. Radley does is his own business.” So Atticus has taught the children as lesson about respecting other people.