Go Set a Watchman Chapter 5 Summary

  • Jean Louise bumps her head getting into the car and she complains that car ceilings are getting lower and lower.
  • On the way to Finch's Landing, Henry asks Jean Louise whatever happened to Dill.
  • She says he's in Italy, and she flashes back to a time she, Jem, and Dill played Tarzan.
  • Henry, who never liked Dill ("I was jealous of him" [5.35], Henry says), wasn't around.
  • After Tarzan, the kids pretended to be the long-winded Reverend Moorehead of Maycomb County.
  • They baptized Scout, and she took off her overalls to be dipped.
  • While she was being baptized, Dill tried to scare them by pretending to be the Holy Ghost—complete with bedsheet and eye holes.
  • His Aunt Rachel saw him and whipped Dill for cutting up her good sheet.
  • Jem and Scout went home and bumped right into Atticus and the real Reverend Moorehead, who had been watching Jem's impersonation the whole time.
  • Scout, stark naked, was embarrassed and ran into the house, where Calpurnia bathed and dressed her.
  • Over dinner, Reverend Moorehead prayed to God to forgive Jem and Scout. After all, they were motherless children and they didn't know how to behave.
  • Jem was mortified and Atticus left the table.
  • Scout asked Calpurnia if Atticus was mad. No, she said. "He on the back porch laughin'!" (5.192)
  • Henry reaches Finch's Landing, snapping Jean Louise from her flashback.
  • Finch's Landing used to belong to Jean Louise's grandparents, hence the name, but Henry tells Jean Louise that Atticus sold the land. It's a country club now.
  • Jean Louise isn't happy. "I just don't like my world disturbed without some warning" (5.222).
  • Henry tells Jean Louise that the world is going to change—and she needs to learn to live with it.
  • He once again brings up marriage, and Jean Louise once again evades the question.
  • She decides they should go swimming with their clothes on, and they drag each other into the water.
  • On the way back, wet in the car, they pass a "carload of Negroes" (5.287) driving fast. Henry says they're a "public menace" (5.289.
  • At home, she kisses Henry goodnight, goes inside, undresses, and climbs into bed.