Discuss Questions for Chapter Twenty-Three of To Kill a Mockingbird
What is Atticus’s only comment about the incident where Bob spat in his face? (217)
“I wish Bob Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco.”
When Bob tried to get Atticus to fight him by saying “Too proud to fight?” how did
Atticus respond, and what does this show us about his character? (217)
Atticus said, “No, too old,” put his hands in his pockets and walked away. This shows he
is not willing to stoop to the same low level as Bob. He rises above, and sticks to his
principles of non-violence. He keeps his cool. He truly ‘turns the other cheek.’
Why does Atticus not want to get a gun to defend himself against Bob Ewell’s possible
attack? (217)
Atticus believes that having a gun around is an invitation to somebody to shoot you.
Also, at a deeper level, Atticus just doesn’t like guns or violence.
What arguments do Jem and Scout come up with to persuade Atticus to get a gun to
protect himself from Bob Ewell? (217-218)
They tell Atticus that they would starve if Mr. Ewell killed him, they’d be raised by Aunt
Alexandra, and first thing she’d do would be to fire Calpurnia.
What does Jem suggest that Scout do to try to get Atticus to borrow a gun with which to
protect himself, which she does do, although this tactic doesn’t work? (218)
Cry and have a fit.
What does Atticus say to Jem about Bob Ewell that relates to one of the book’s major
themes? (218)
He tells Jem he ought to try to stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes for a minute.
What seems to be Atticus’s attitude about Bob’s having spit in his face? (218)
He says he’d gladly take it if it meant he’d saved Mayella or any of the other Ewell
children from another beating by Bob. Bob had to take it out on someone, and Atticus
would rather Bob take it out on him than on his children. Atticus also thinks that Bob
Ewell got it all out of his system by spitting in Atticus’s face and that they no longer have
anything more to fear from him.
What does Aunt Alexandra say to Atticus about his idea that Bob Ewell has gotten it all
out of his system and is no longer a dangerous threat? (218)
She says not to be so sure of that, because his kind would do anything to pay off a
grudge. She says he could do something furtive (sneaky).
What will happen to Tom Robinson if he loses the appeal? (219)
He will go to the electric chair and be executed, unless the governor commutes his
sentence.
Jem says that the jury did not have to give Tom death; they could have simply sentenced
him to prison time. What does Atticus reply? (219)
Atticus explains that no jury was going to say to a colored man that they thought he was
guilty, but not very, on a charge of having raped a white woman. It was either a straight
acquittal—not guilty—or totally guilty and sentenced to die. It was an all-or-nothing
verdict.
Jem then says that rape should not be a capital crime. Atticus says to Jem he has no
problem with the crime of rape being a capital offense. He just feels that the state should
never execute unless the case is airtight. If Atticus is willing to accept the idea of the
death penalty, what level of Kohlberg’s scale of moral development can he not be? (219)
Atticus could not be at the sixth (the highest) level of Kohlberg because that requires one
to be truly universal: everyone gets treated the same. If one person has the right to live,
then all have the right to live, no matter what, with no exceptions.
According to Atticus, what thing that he does not name directly came between those
jurors and reason, or, rational and logical thought? (220)
Prejudice/racism.
What does Atticus say a white man demonstrates himself to be if he cheats a black man?
(220)
Trash.
Why couldn’t Miss Maudie sit on a jury in this time and place? (221)
She’s a woman, and women are not allowed to serve on juries in Alabama at this time.
What do you think of Atticus’s comments that he agrees with not letting women serve on
juries because they must protect ladies from sordid cases like the Tom Robinson case,
and that if women were allowed to serve on juries we’d never get a complete case tried
because they’d always be interrupting to ask questions? (221)
Answers will vary, but many students will identify these as sexist comments.
Atticus gives an example of why some people might want to be excused from jury duty.
He talks about what could happen if Miss Rachel ran over Miss Maudie with her car and
Mr. Link Deas had to decide how much to award in damages. As Atticus explains it,
what might Mr. Link Deas be afraid would happen in that situation? (221)
Mr. Link Deas might be afraid he’d lose the business of whichever woman feels he did
not rule in her favor.
When Scout asks what would make Mr. Deas think that either Miss Rachel or Miss
Maudie would stop doing business with him if he ruled in favor of one and against the
other, what observation does Jem make about Miss Rachel versus Miss Maudie, and what
does this tell us about how Jem views them? (222)
Jem says that Miss Rachel would stop doing business with Mr. Deas if he ruled against
her, but that Miss Maudie wouldn’t. Jem seems to think Miss Rachel would hold it
against someone (perhaps because she is petty, immature, and self-centered) but that Miss
Maudie would not hold a grudge because she is more forgiving and mature.
When Jem mutters that the jury made up its mind really quickly, Atticus says no it didn’t.
The verdict took several hours (rather than the usual several minutes in cases like this)
because one guy took considerable wearing down. He wanted an acquittal. Who was the
one person on the jury who was holding out for several hours for an acquittal? (222)
One of the Cunninghams.
Jem finds it astonishing that Atticus would not ‘strike’ a Cunningham from the jury when
not that long ago the Cunninghams had shown up to lynch Tom and would have hurt
Atticus in the process. Jem asks Atticus how he could allow such a person to be on the
jury. What does Atticus say to explain his reasoning? (223)
Atticus says there was no risk, because there is no difference between one man who’s
going to convict and another man who is also going to convict, but there is a difference
between one who’s going to convict and one who’s a little disturbed in his mind. The
Cunningham was the only uncertainty, the only wild card, on the jury. Also, the night of
the confrontation in front of the jail cell, Atticus and Jem and Scout earned the respect of
the Cunninghams for their bravery.
Why won’t Aunt Alexandra allow Scout to invite Walter Cunningham over for dinner or
to play after school or have Walter spend the night? (223-225)
She says that the Cunninghams aren’t “their kind of folks” and that Walter Cunningham
is trash. Their family has a drinking streak a mile wide and even if you scrubbed Walter
until he shined and put him in nice clothes he would still be trash.
Scout remembers the last time Aunt Alexandra had put her foot down about not allowing
Scout to associate with someone. What had Scout wanted to do, and what was Aunt
Alexandra’s reaction then? (224)
Scout remembers when she had wanted to go over to Calpurnia’s house and see how she
lived and who her friends were, and Aunt Alexandra reacted as if Scout had wanted to
see the other side of the moon. She put her foot down and wouldn’t let Scout do it.
What does Scout now think is the reason, perhaps, why Aunt Alexandra came to live with
them? (224)
To help them choose their friends.
How does Scout react when Aunt Alexandra won’t let Scout invite Walter over and
explains she wouldn’t let Walter come over even if he were kin to them, and that it’s
because he’s trash and a bad influence and Scout is already enough of a problem to her
father as it is? (225)
Scout bursts into angry sobbing tears and Jem has to restrain her and then lead her away.
What does Jem show to Scout as a sign of his budding physical maturity? (225)
His chest hair.
What got Scout more upset: Aunt Alexandra saying Scout was a problem to Atticus, or
what she said about Walter? (226)
What Aunt Alexandra said about Walter upset Scout. Scout once asked Atticus if she
was a problem to him, and he’d said not much of one, at most one he could always figure
out, and not to spend one more second worrying about it.
What kinds of ‘folks’ does Jem believe there are? (226)
Four kinds: the ordinary kind, like themselves and the neighbors, the kind like the
Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells (at the dump) and the Negroes.
And ‘our’ kind of folks look down on the Cunninghams, who look down on the Ewells,
and the Ewells look down on the colored folks.
What does Atticus think of all this Old Family stuff Aunt Alexandra believes? (226)
He thinks that it’s foolishness. Everybody’s family is as old as everybody else’s,
including colored folks and Englishmen.
Jem says ‘background’ has to do with how long your family has been reading and
writing. He points out that Mr. Cunningham can barely sign his own name, and that’s
why the Finch family has more ‘background’ than the Cunninghams. Scout then
observes why Walter Cunningham is illiterate. What does Scout say in Walter’s defense
that demonstrates she is trying to walk in Walter’s shoes, empathizing with and
understanding him? (227)
She says Walter is smart, but he can’t read because he has to keep helping his father with
the farm chores. That’s why he can’t progress in school. It’s not his fault.
What does Scout conclude about the different kinds of ‘folks’ in the world? (227)
There’s just one kind of folks: folks.
What does Jem say is the reason why Boo Radley stays inside his house?
significance does that have? (227)
What
Jem is saying that the way people treat each other is so awful, that Boo stays in his house
to avoid all the ugliness. He stays inside because he wants to stay inside. The world is
too horrible, too full of mean people who can’t get along and who go out of their way to
despise each other.
Tom Robinson has been convicted of a capital crime and now faces the death penalty.
Should the U.S. have the death penalty or not, and why or why not?
Answers will vary.
Compare the way that Tom Robinson treated Mayella versus the way the rest of her family
treated her. Consider also how Boo Radley’s family treats him. How might life in Maycomb be
different if the rest of Maycomb had embraced Mayella and/or Boo Radley as if they were family
after their own blood relatives failed to treat them decently, or if all of Maycomb’s white citizens
extended that idea to Maycomb’s black citizens?
Answers will vary.
There is a saying that “it takes a village to raise a child.” In what ways have the people of
Maycomb in general helped to raise Jem, Scout, and Dill, and what lessons—both positive ones
and negative ones—has the community taught to these children through its words and its actions?
Answers will vary.