Chapter 5 begins with scout nagging Jem to stop his Boo Radley game, with partial success. Jem and Dill only slow down the game, playing more cautiously. This shows us that Scout holds a bit more respect for Atticus than Jem does. That isn't to say that Jem does not respect him, but his curiosity about Boo gets the better of him. At this point, it is really more of an obsession than a curiosity. He even constructs a backup plan in case they are caught playing again: to change the names of the characters.

We also learn a lot about Dill's personality in this chapter. In the beginning, we learn that Dill is a follower and a yes-man for Jem, doing and agreeing with everything he says. Later in the chapter, it is also demonstrated that he is a compulsive liar, possibly to cover up a rough personal life.

On another note, Scout is being pushed away from Jem more and more as time goes on. In this chapter, she seeks Miss Maudie for solace. On the subject of Miss Maudie, we see that her relationship with kids is good, and that she is a kind character. She lets the kids play on her lot, and feeds them cakes. This gives the children a lot of respect for her. However, the author uses her as an outlet for life lessons. Could the author be running out of ideas of where to put them? In this chapter alone she issues Scout two major life lessons, AND foreshadows later events AND tells us that Boo Radley is still alive.

The author uses some interesting phrases in this part of the chapter, such as "foot-washing baptist". Maudie later explains what the difference between foot-washers and regular baptists. After another one of her life lessons (the bible in the hand of one man is more dangerous than a whiskey bottle in the hand of another), Scout instinctively defends her father, even though he wasn't who she was talking about. This further emphasizes Scout's respect for Atticus.

Despite Miss Maudie telling her otherwise, Scout still sees Boo as a sort of boogeyman. Jem and Dill take their Boo obsession to the next level, and try to contact him via fishing pole. The beginning of this scene is suspenseful because of the wording the author uses. She uses phrases like "they edged cautiously down the sidewalk", to build an atmosphere of suspense. Most of this atmosphere dissipates after Jem's folly with the pole, and it being too short. This leads to him wobbling on the fence and dropping the note several times.

Jem is caught by Atticus, and desperately tries to talk his way out of the situation. Him doing this gives me cause to think that he doesn't believe what he did was wrong. Atticus scolds and lectures Jem, and I like how the author didn't use actual dialogue, instead summarizing what he said. At the end of he chapter, Atticus tricks Jem into telling the truth. After realizing he has bee tricked, Jem yells that he doesn't want to be a lawyer anymore.