Wednesday 21 September 2011

Where did Miss Maudie stay after her house burned down in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In
To Kill A Mockingbird, Miss Maudie is a unique character and she is not
like most of the other residents of "the tired old town" (ch 1) of Maycomb County,
with a voice "to shut anyone up" (ch 5). She observesandbut doesn't interfere and, at
first, she is "a benign presence" who allows the children to play as long as they do
not spoil her precious garden, especially her azaleas. Scout soon considers Miss Maudie her
friend and asks questions knowing that she will always get an honest answer from Miss Maudie.
Miss Maudie loves her garden and considers time spent inside her house, except for when she's
baking, as time "wasted." 

It is apparent that Miss Maudie is not a
"foot-washing Baptist," because, as she tells Scout, they believe that she spends too
much time in her garden when she should be reading her Bible, to the point of even telling Miss
Maudie that she and her beautiful flowers are "going to hell" (ch 5).


One winter day, the children make a snowman and are very pleased with their
achievements. The weather is very cold and when Miss Maudie's house burns down in the middle of
the night, the children watch on helplessly as it "devours" her whole house. Luckily,
some of her belongings have been preserved by some of the men trying to help. Progress is slow
because of the fire truck and the inadequate fire hoses. Eventually, however, the fire is
brought under control and extinguished. In ,tells the children that Miss Maudie will stay
with Miss Stephanie Crawford, another neighbor who Scout knows is "the neighborhood
scold" (ch 1). She is a sharp contrast to the honest and forthright Miss Maudie; she prides
herself on her local knowledge while actually she is just a gossip. 

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