One day when Scout and Jem were going to town they passed by Mrs. Dubose’s house. She started to make fun of them and Atticus. Jem responds by cutting the tops of every camellia Mrs. Dubose owns. Atticus finds out what Jem did and makes him go apologize to her. She wants Jem to read to her every day for a month and Atticus makes him do so. Mrs. Dubose is a morphine addict and wants to kick the habit before she dies. When she dies Atticus teaches Scout and Jem what real courage is. It is not just a man with a gun, it’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through
no matter what.
Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to the Negro church. They notice the differences between their church and the Negro church such, as there is no hymnbooks. They notice that Reverend Sykes has a collection being taken up for the wife of the Negro man Atticus is defending. When they come home they find out their Aunt Alexandra is staying with them while the trial is underway. Jem and Scout become afraid that Aunt Alexandra is going to change the relationship they have with Atticus, but finally, even Atticus recognizes the importance of their own relationship and tells them to forget all the business about the importance of family. The case causes the Finch household to act differently. Atticus and his sister disagree openly. The children realize that Atticus must be troubled, since he has never disagreed so openly with anyone. When Scout goes to her room she steps on something. She thinks it is a snake and calls Jem. Jem comes to her room and they later find out that she stepped on Dill. Dill sneaked out of his house and came to the Finch’s house. Atticus calls next door, Dill’s Aunt Rachael and they decide that Dill can stay there.
At night Scout, Jem and Dill notice that Atticus is missing and go out and look for him. They find him at the town jail protecting Tom Robinson from the lynch mob. Scout notices that one man is Mr. Cunningham. She tells him that Atticus helped him with legal problems and that she knows his son Walter and she and Jem invited him to have lunch at their house. After hearing Scout Mr. Cunningham comes to his senses and he and his men decide to leave. The trial starts Monday morning and the children see everyone heading toward the court. They sneak out of the house and also decide to go to the court. The courtroom is so crowded that Scout, Jem and Dill decide to go sit up in the balcony with the black spectators.
Chapters 17-24
The children have arrived at the court room in time to hear Heck Tate testify about the basic charges against Tom Robinson. Sheriff Tate was called to the house of Bob Ewell one night, where he found Bob’s nineteen-year-old daughter Mayella badly beaten. Mayella accused Tom of raping her. The Ewell family lives near the Maycomb town dump, adjoining the black section of town. They receive public assistance, but everyone knows that Mr. Bob Ewell spends most of his relief checks on whiskey, letting his children go hungry much of the time. Bob Ewell is a hero for saving his daughter and the town backs him. Atticus is the only calm person in the room. He has already gotten Heck Tate to testify that Mayella was bruised on the right side of her face. Now he tricks Bob Ewell into signing his name in front of everyone: Bob Ewell is left-handed. Jem, seated in the balcony, immediately sees the significance of this piece of evidence. If a left-handed person had beaten Mayella, that would account for the fact that she was bruised on the right side of her face.
Mayella’s takes the witness stand. Mayella testifies that one day she was sitting on her porch when Tom Robinson happened by and she offered to pay him a nickel to break up an old piece of furniture into kindling wood. Instead, Tom followed her inside the house, grabbed her around the throat, beat her up, and raped her.Throughout her testimony Mayella is very nervous. She seems afraid of Atticus, and thinks that he is making fun of her when he calls her “Miss”. It is obvious that Mayella is not used to being treated politely. Mayella breaks down in tears as she describes her desperate struggle with Tom. After she is finished speaking, Atticus asks Tom Robinson to stand up. Everyone present can see that his left hand is useless and mangled.
According to Tom Robinson, the incident when he broke up a piece of furniture actually took place months earlier. Since that time, he had done many small favors for Mayella. On the day the rape is supposed to have happened, Mayella asked him to come inside the house to fix a door. But once they were alone together, Mayella kissed him. Tom’s reaction to this was panic. He knew that any involvement with Mayella would mean trouble. And when Bob Ewell came in and found him and Mayella together, Tom ran away as fast as he could.At one point, he gets Tom to tell the court the reason why he did so many favors for Mayella: He felt sorry for her. Mayella had no friends, and she spent her whole life taking care of the house while her father and brothers just sat around. This would be fatal for Tom. As far as the people of Maycomb are concerned, no black man has a right to feel sorry for a white woman. Inferiors are not supposed to pity their betters. There are many reasons pointing to the innocence of Tom Robinson. The jury would never let him go because he is black.
While Scout and Dill are sitting outside the courthouse talking about the trial, they discover that Dolphus Raymond is resting under the same oak tree. Raymond sees that Dill is in tears and offers him a drink from the bottle he is carrying in a paper bag. To the children’s surprise, the bottle contains Coca-Cola. Raymond confesses that he is not really a drunk. He only pretends to be one so that other people will leave him alone and let him live the way he wants to. Dill and Scout go back into the courthouse just in time to hear Atticus’ closing speech to the jury. This speech is one of the most famous speeches in a novel of all time.Atticus emphasizes that he does not believe in complete equality: Some people may be born richer, or smarter, or with more talent than their fellow human beings. But there is one kind of equality that he does believe in very much–equality under the law. For this reason, he asks the jurors to do the right thing and find Tom Robinson innocent.
Atticus has just finished his speech when Calpurnia appears in the courtroom with a note from Aunt Alexandra. Alexandra has noticed that the children are missing and has been searching for them all over town. At this point, Atticus realizes that Scout, Jem, and Dill have been sitting in the balcony watching the whole trial. Atticus gives the children permission to return to the courthouse after dinner to hear the jury’s verdict.When the jury returns it is almost midnight. They have found Tom guilty. It took a long time to convict Tom because Atticus put some doubt in the minds of the jury.
Jem is the most upset of anyone because he had convinced himself that Tom had a chance to win. There is no doubt in Jem’s mind who is responsible for Tom’s fate. He blames the jurors.Aunt Alexandra s shocked when Atticus comments that he is glad the children saw the trial because what happened to Tom Robinson is as much a part of Maycomb. Dill has already started to look for ways to put the the verdict out of his mind. He tells Jem and Scout that he wants to be a clown when he grows up, because “There ain’t one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh…..” Miss Maudie’s reaction may be the most interesting of all. She tells Jem and Scout that their father is one of those people who “do our unpleasant jobs for us.” Bob Ewell has promised that he will get revenge on Atticus if it takes “the rest of his life.”
Atticus is not upset by Bob Ewell’s threat. He knows that Bob is angry because even though he won the case, he was shown up as a liar in front of the whole town.Jem is starting to become more aware of the class differences that separate the people of Maycomb. He considers young Walter Cunningham to be basically a good person. The Ewells are even lower on the social scale than the Cunninghams and the blacks are in a different category altogether.
Scout joins the women in there little get-together. They drink a lot of tea. In the middle of the tea, Atticus arrives home unexpectedly. Out in the kitchen, where the guests cannot hear him, he tells Alexandra and Scout some bad news: Tom Robinson has been killed trying to escape from prison. The ending of the chapter is a bit surprising. Alexandra is genuinely upset by the news, yet insists that she and Scout go back to entertain the guests, and carry on as if nothing had happened.
Chapters 25-31
Jem is the most deeply affected by Tom’s conviction and Tom’s death. He can not even stand to see Scout kill a little bug. Jem and Dill were on their way back from swimming when they saw Atticus on the road. He was on his way with Cal to bring the news to Helen Robinson about the death of Tom. Jem and Dill decided to go with them and when they tell Helen about the news, she faints. Mr. Underwood decides to make an editorial in his newspaper, writing about that killing a crippled man like Tom Robinson is like killing a mockingbird.
In school, Scouts class is studying current events. Cecil Jacobs brings in an article about Hitler’s persecution of the Jews in Germany. Miss Gates, their teacher tells the class how bad Hitler is and how lucky they are to live in a democracy. Scout overhears Miss Gates tell Stephanie Crawford that the decision against Tom Robinson was a good thing because it would teach the blacks in town their proper place. Scout wonders how anyone can be so hypocritical as Miss Gates.
Mr. Ewell is fired from his WPA job on account for drunkenness. Judge Taylor was almost attacked by Ewell in his own home but was able to scare him away. Mr. Ewell also followed and threatened Helen Robinson on her way to her new job under Mr. Link Deas. After Mr. Deas promises Mr. Ewell he will be sorry if he does not leave Helen alone, he stops.
Scout tells her family about the special pageant she is participating in at the Halloween fair at the high school. Scout is dressed up as a ham. On Halloween night Scout and Jem head for the high school but when they reach the great oak tree in front of the Radley property, Cecil Jacobs leaps at them, scaring them. At the pageant Scout is so bored that she falls asleep and misses her signal to go onstage. When she awakes and makes her entrance the audience laughs at her. Scout is so embarrassed that she decides to stay at the school until everyone leaves so she will not be laughed at. When Scout and Jem are heading home Scout forgets her shoes but Jem convinces her to get them tomorrow. As they walk home they here footsteps and someone is following them. They think that it is Cecil just trying to scare them again. When they reach the great oak tree Jem notices that it is not Cecil following them and tells Scout to run as fast as she can. Scout in her costume can not run very fast and is attacked. Her costume gets stabbed and is ruined but she is not really hurt. She realizes that there are now four people here. Scout trips over someone and sees another person carrying Jem back to her house over his or her shoulder. Scout follows them home and Atticus and Aunt Alexandra are calling a doctor. Scout thinks Jem is dead but when Dr. Reynolds looks over Jem he confirms that he is not dead, but has badly broken his arm. Mr. Hect Tate comes over and reports that Mr. Ewell is lying dead under the great oak, stabbed with a kitchen knife. Mr. Tate asks Scout to describe what happened. After hearing Scout they realize that Mr. Ewell was trying to attack Scout and Jem as a way to get revenge on Atticus. They also realize the man who carried Jem home and saved their lives is Boo Radley.
Everyone goes to the porch to talk about the incident. Atticus thinks Jem stabbed Mr. Ewell for self defense, while Mr. Tate thinks he fell on his own knife. Atticus protests at first and thinks the sheriff is trying to cover up for Jem. Atticus realizes that it is not Jem, the sheriff wants to protect. Boo Radley, not Jem, stabbed Mr. Ewell. Mr. Tate wants to protect Boo from going to court because of the publicity and he knows how Boo is. Mr. Tate says putting Boo on trial is like killing a mockingbird.
Now Scout’s dream of getting Boo out of his house is fulfilled. Scout lets Boo have one last look at Jem and then takes him by the arm back to his house. Standing on the Radley porch for the first time in her life, Scout can see as she never could before how the neighborhood, and her own childish games, must have looked to Arthur Radley, how he must have watched with shy curiosity, and enjoyed seeing their amazement when they found his small gifts hidden in the knothole of the oak tree. Years later, when Bob Ewell attacked the children under that same tree, Arthur Radley must have felt a special obligation to protect them. Returning home, Scout finds her father sitting up reading a book of Jem’s called The Gray Ghost. Atticus refuses at first to read aloud to her. The story is a scary one, he says, and Scout has had enough scary experiences for one day. But Scout is not afraid. “Nothin’s real scary except in books,” she tells Atticus. Scout never sees Mr. Arthur Radley ever again.