The relationship of Miss Maudie & Uncle Jack
"Miss Maudie had known Uncle Jack Finch, Atticus’s brother, since they were children. Nearly the same age, they had grown up together at Finch’s Landing. Miss Maudie was the daughter of a neighbouring landowner, Dr Frank Buford. Dr Buford’s profession was medicine and his obsession was anything that grew in the ground, so he stayed poor. Uncle Jack Finch confined his passion for digging to his window-boxes in Nashville and stayed rich. We saw Uncle Jack every Christmas, and every Christmas he yelled across the street for Miss Maudie to come marry him. Miss Maudie would yell back, ‘Call a little louder, Jack Finch, and they’ll hear you at the post office, I haven’t heard you yet!’ Jem and I thought this a strange way to ask for a lady’s hand in marriage, but then Uncle Jack was rather strange. He said he was trying to get Miss Maudie’s goat, that he had been trying unsuccessfully for forty years, that he was the last person in the world Miss Maudie would think about marrying but the first person she thought about teasing, and the best defence to her was spirited offence, all of which we understood clearly."
The relationship between Uncle Jack Finch and Miss Maudie Atkinson is pretty confusing. On one hand, Uncle Jack is obsessed with her, asking her to marry him as a joke, then Miss Maudie says no and things like "keep dreaming" and she liked to tease him. As our parents tell us in year 1 when the mean kid pushes you on the slide in the playground, "maybe their doing it cause they like you!" suggests an interesting thought about the pair. On the other hand, it could just be a big joke to the neighborhood that Jack kept persisting.
In the 20s and 30s, men were the dominant sex. It may have seemed rude to a normal couple to reject a marriage offer, but no one really seems to care about Jack & Miss Maudie, which is a bit strange for this era.
The relationship between Uncle Jack Finch and Miss Maudie Atkinson is pretty confusing. On one hand, Uncle Jack is obsessed with her, asking her to marry him as a joke, then Miss Maudie says no and things like "keep dreaming" and she liked to tease him. As our parents tell us in year 1 when the mean kid pushes you on the slide in the playground, "maybe their doing it cause they like you!" suggests an interesting thought about the pair. On the other hand, it could just be a big joke to the neighborhood that Jack kept persisting.
In the 20s and 30s, men were the dominant sex. It may have seemed rude to a normal couple to reject a marriage offer, but no one really seems to care about Jack & Miss Maudie, which is a bit strange for this era.