Summary Chapter 4

• the school year is quite boring for Scout, she feels that she already knows everything she is being taught at school which frustrates her
• when she passes the Radley Place one day after school, she sees some silver foil glittering in a knothole in a tree in the Radley yard
• Scout takes it and discovers that it is chewing gum which she chews
• Jem is scared and tells her to spit it out because everything that comes from the Radley Place is poisonous
• the last day of school, Scout discovers two pennies in that same knothole, which Scout keeps
• Dill returns to Maycomb for the summer holidays
• one game they play is rolling each other around in an old tire; one time, Scout ends up in front of the Radley steps and she panics, but nothing happens
• the three of them are inspired by this incident to another game: playing Boo Radley
• during that game, they act as if they were the Radley Family
• yet, Atticus catches them and notices that their game has something to do with the Radleys
• Jem denies that and they all wonder if they should keep up playing that game

Summary Chapter 5

• as Jem and Dill‘s friendship grows closer, Scout feels left out and starts spending time with Miss Maudie Atkinson, an elderly neighbour
• the widow Miss Maudie likes baking cakes and gardening and used to be a friend of Atticus‘ brother Jack
• with her, Scout talks about Boo Radley and she learns from Miss Maudie, that Boo is still alive and that Miss Maudie believes him to be the victim of his violent and punishing father who is now dead
• in Miss Maudie‘s opinion, Boo was a very polite and friendly child and that people spread ridiculous rumours about him
• however, she believes that Boo must be crazy by now, living under those harsh circumstances
• Jem and Dill decide to tease Boo out of the house by inviting him to get ice cream with them; they attempt to put a note on the window with a fishing pole, yet Atticus intervenes and stops them

Summary Chapter 6

• Jem and Dill follow Atticus‘ demand up until the last day of Dill‘s stay in Maycomb
• that day, they peek through the windows of Radley Place and see a man with a hat
• all of a sudden, they hear a gunshot and they escape through the fence; Jem looses his pants in the process
• when they return home, they see a crowd in front of the Radley Place and hear that Nathan Radley shot a "Negro" who tried to steal something from his yard
• Mr. Radley threatens to shoot again at the very next sound that will come from the yard
• Atticus notices that Jem‘s pants are missing and asks where he left them
• Dill intervenes and says that Jem lost them during a game of strip poker
• in the night, Jem leaves his house to get his pants back from the Radley Place

Function

• childhood adventures have changed - more focused on Boo Radley
  
  • Boo Radley is no longer a monster, but an actual human being
  • the children try to get in touch with him
  • reader‘s interest in Boo Radley is being maintained, there is no knowledge of Boo‘s relevance to the plot yet
• Boo‘s presence manifests
  
  • through little gifts in the knothole (chewing gum, pennies) - Scout doesn‘t know that that was Boo‘s doing, but the reader can easily guess so
  • insights on Boo‘s character and reasons for his reclusiveness through Miss Maudie
  • Boo as a victim of his relentlessly religious family (here, the symbol of the mockingbird appears; also: theme of loss of innocence with Boo being victimized by his father)
• Miss Maudies portrayal as an important character
  
• strong, resilient female
• has the same sense of justice as Atticus in comparison to the other town inhabitants
• a friend and confidante of Scout; also, a maternal figure to her since her mother died when Scout was little
• through her sharp tongue and honesty, she stands in contrast to the other townswomen such as Stephanie Crawford and serves thus as a role model and as a conscience for the town‘s women