never lies to them or talks down to them.  She also does not gossip like Miss Stephanie Crawford.  She tells the truth, and is respectful to them even though they are children.  She extends this benevolence to Boo Radley.  Unlike the other neighbors, she does not talk down on him.  She calls him by his name and treats him politely.

"Arthur Radley just stays in the house, that's all," said Miss Maudie. "Wouldn't you stay in the house if you didn't want to come out?" (CH 5)

Her explanation for Boo’s unusual behavior when he was young is that “old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist” (ch 5) and Boo just could not take it anymore, and that is why he stabbed him with scissors.  When they ask her if he is crazy, she replies “"If he's not he should be by now” and tells them they do not know what happens to people inside closed doors.

The children ponder Miss Maudie’s speech, and decide that they should send Boo Radley a note to make him come out.  They have decided that he really is lonely, and he would do better to have help to come out, so that they can be his friend.

As time went by, Jem came to realize that Boo Radley was not the terrible "boogie man" that he and Scout (and Dill) had imagined. It began on the night that Jem lost his pants, when he returned to find the tears sewn "all crooked." He told Scout that it was "Like somebody was reading my mind." Later, after discovering the pocket watch and chain along with the knife, he told his sister that "I just don't get it... I don't know why, Scout." Then, on the night of the fire when Atticus informed them that it must have been Boo who had quietly placed the blanket around Scout, Jem told her that "I ain't gonna do anything to him."

In Chapter 23, after discussing the Cunninghams, Atticus tells the children that "there's just one kind of folks. Folks." Jem thinks for a moment and then tells Scout that he thinks he understands why Boo stays inside his house: "... it's because he wants to stay inside."

Miss Maudie is a sort of Sherpa in the book, to borrow a term from mountain climbing. She is the person who helps the children see things from the perspective of the adult world. She can do this because she understands two worlds—the world of adults and the world of children. When it comes to Boo Radley, she wants Scout to not be too hasty in judging him or believing what others say about him. There is always a context for the way people behave. In this context, Boo is the victim of a harsh home. Here is what Miss Maudie says to Scout concerning Boo’s father and his religious friends: “Foot-washers believe anything that’s pleasure is a sin. Did you know some of ‘em came out of the woods one Saturday and passed by this place and told me and my flowers were going to hell?”

Later in the conversation, Miss Maudie comes out directly and says that Boo is not what the rumors say about him. “No, child,” she says, “that is a sad house. I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did. Spoke as nicely as he knew how.” Her point is simple: don’t believe in everything that people say. She is trying to teach Scout a valuable lesson: see things from different perspectives. This is the same lesson that Atticus is trying to teach his children, as well. In fact, the adults in the book are judged by how they view the world. Those with a multifaceted approach are enlightened, and those without are benighted.

Miss Maudie attempts to explain to Scout that Boo's seclusion is a result of his father's strict religious beliefs. Boo did not choose to stay in the house; rather he was forced to by his father. She tries to convey to Scout that Boo was an innocent child who is more of a victim than a monster. Miss Maudie describes Mr. Radley as a "foot-washing Baptist" who believed that any sort of pleasure was a sin. Mr. Radley took the Bible literally, and his beliefs affected the lives his children in negative ways. Boo stays confined in his house because his father chose to keep in him locked inside. Maudie tells Scout that, "the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of---oh, your father." (Lee 60) She tries to explain that a person's interpretations of the Bible can be harmful if taken to extreme measures. Maudie tells Scout that Boo was a friendly child when he was younger, but is probably crazy by now because he hasn't left the house.