An Attempt to Communicate (Ch5-9)

In these chapters, we find our “three musketeers” attempting to communicate with Arthur “Boo Radley”. Before these attempts are made, we learn that Dill and Jem were growing closer as Scout remained left out. We also hear about Dill’s proposal to Scout, “He asked me earlier in the summer to marry him, then he promptly forgot about it” (Lee, 41). This shows how Dill and Scout are somewhat starting to drift apart.

Dill and Jem want to give a note to Boo Radley. Scout, after spending a lot of time with Miss Maudie, knows that a lot of the rumours about Arthur are false. She also learned that Arthur was a kind child of a “foot-washing baptist”. We also hear that the foot-washers believe that anything that pertains to pleasure is a sin. Lee shows us this fact, “…told me and my flowers were going to hell” (44).

Scout awakens to hear Dill and Jem’s plan, “We are going to give a note to Boo Radley” (Lee, 46). They proceed with the plan but we learn of the difficulties they faced. Undeterred, the trio attempts to sneak into the house. We learn that they one again fail and a gunshot was heard around the area.

More items are found in the knothole. These are gifts to the children (Jem, Scout, and Dill). They even found soap figurines made to look like them as Arthur would of saw when they tried to sneak in. This shows that Arthur, is indeed a kind person who is still in seclusion. He is attempting to communicate.

Another profound experience was when Miss Maudies house was on fire and a blanket was put on Scout. Boo did this… This means that he must have ventured out of his house in a caring way. As we know, Atticus now knows the story of the knothole.

In my opinion, this section shows a new side of Boo. We even see Scout calling him Arthur to Miss Maudie since that is his real name. It looks as though Arthur is growing along with the children and may eventually come out of seclusion.