Chapters 15-17
1. What did Mr. Heck Tate’s mob want?
They wanted to warn Atticus that they were worried something would happen with Tom
Robinson being moved back to Maycomb for the trial. They wanted to be sure that Atticus and
Tom Robinson were safe.
2. What was the purpose of Walter Cunningham’s mob?
Cunningham’s mob wanted to inflict their own brand of justice on Tom Robinson. Most likely
they would have lynched him. They were willing to harm Atticus to get to Tom if necessary.
3. Why did Mr. Cunningham’s mob leave?
After Scout, Jem, and Dill arrived on the scene, Scout began talking to Mr. Cunningham and it
made Mr. Cunningham (and possibly others) realize that they didn’t want to harm Atticus or the
children or harm anyone in front of the children. She reached the better part of Mr. Cunningham.
4. Identify Mr. Dolphus Raymond.
He was a white man who lived with a black woman and had children with her. He lived in the
black community of Maycomb. Jem has heard that he is always drunk, but Mr. Raymond tells
Dill and Scout that he only pretends to be drunk to give people a reason they can understand for
why he lives like he does.
5. Identify Tom Robinson, Mr. Gilmer, Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell, and Judge Taylor.
Tom Robinson – the defendant in the case. Accused of raping Mayella Ewell.
Mr. Gilmer – the prosecuting attorney
Bob Ewell – Mayella Ewell’s father
Mayella Ewell – accuses Tom Robinson of raping her and beating her
Judge Taylor – the judge in the case against Tom Robinson
6. What was the importance of Mayella’s bruises being primarily on the right-hand side of
her face?
Bruises on the right side of her face indicate that she was beaten by a person who was lefthanded.
Chapters 18-21
1. What was Mayella’s account of the incident with Tom Robinson?
She said that she had asked Tom Robinson to come into the yard to break up a chiffarobe. When
she went into the house to get him a nickel to pay him, he followed her into the house and
grabbed her around the neck and hit her. He “chunked” her on the floor and took advantage of
her. She fainted and her father was standing over her yelling, “Who done it? Who done it?”
2. What was Tom’s side of the story?
He said that she asked him to come into the house to fix the hinges on a door. There was nothing
wrong with the door. Unlike usual, there were no children around because she had saved seven
nickels to send them to town to get ice creams so that she and Tom Robinson could be alone. She
asked Tom to climb on a chair to get a box, and as he stood there, she grabbed him around the
legs. When he hopped down off of the chair, she jumped on him. She kissed him on the side of
the face. Mr. Ewell saw this from the window and yelled and threatened Mayella. Tom wanted
out and had to push Mayella away from the door. She was not hurt. He ran away.
3. What was Tom’s handicap? Why was important to his case?
His left arm had been damaged in an accident with a cotton gin. He was unable to use it – it was
useless. He could not have bruised the right side of Mayella’s face, and more than likely he
would not have been able to force himself on a strong, violently resisting young woman.
4. What do Dill and Scout learn from Mr. Raymond?
Dill and Scout learn that people aren’t always as they appear to be. They learn that Mr. Raymond
lives as he does because that is how he wants to live and whom he wants to live with. Since
people could never understand that, he acts like a drunk so people have a “reason to latch onto”
so they can accept his behavior.
5. What were Atticus’ closing remarks to the jury?
o There is no medical evidence that Mayella was raped.
o The only evidence is the questionable testimony of the Ewells and they contradicted each
other.
o Tom Robinson couldn’t have done it due to his useless left arm and hand.
o He said that Mayella was trying to get rid of the evidence she broke a “code,” one of their
society’s “laws”: She needed to get rid of Tom Robinson because she had tempted and
kissed a black man.
o He said that the one place all men should be created equal is in a court of law and so the
jury’s job was to give the defendant a fair trial.
6. What was the jury’s verdict?
They found Tom guilty.
Chapters 22-25
1. Why did Jem cry?
He was shocked at the injustice of the jury. His belief in the people of his town, whom he had
always thought to be the best people in the world, could do something so wrong when given the
facts. That being right and telling the truth would allow them to overcome their prejudices.
2. What was “round the back steps” when Calpurnia came in on Monday morning?
The black community had left all sorts of food for Atticus and his family as a gesture of their
thanks to him for defending Tom Robinson. They did this in spite of the fact they had little
enough food for their own families.
3. What was the significance of Maudie’s two little cakes and one large one?
Dill and Scout got their usual little cakes, but she cut a slice from the big cake for Jem. It was her
symbolic way of saying that she understands what he is going through and that he is becoming a
young man instead of a child.
4. Describe Bob Ewell’s meeting with Atticus at the post office.
Ewell wanted to fight with Atticus, and Ewell spit in his face. Atticus said he was too old to
fight, and he walked away. Ewell told him that he would get him if it took the rest of his life.
5. What is Atticus’ reaction to Ewell’s threats?
He understands that Ewell is upset, and he allows Ewell the right to be upset. He is glad to take
Ewell’s anger if it saves one of the children a beating – if he can get his anger out by spitting on
and threatening Atticus. Atticus does not believe Ewell would really physically harm him.
6. Alexandra doesn’t want Scout playing with Walter Cunningham. Why not?
She thinks that the Cunninghams are “trash” because they don’t have the “background” of the
Finches. They do not come from a “fine old family.”
7. Jem said, “I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in
the house all this time. . . it’s because he wants to stay inside.” Why does he say that?
Jem is so shaken by the jury’s verdict, and he feels betrayed and let down by people he trusted,
that he is seeing the world as a really complicated place. The jury decision, all this talk from
Alexandra about social classes and fine old families and background, Mr. Raymond pretending
to be a drunk – its all so hard to understand. It is all weighing on his mind, and he’s trying to sort
it out. He thinks maybe Boo is onto something by just staying inside and not having to deal with
it or try to understand it. World is just too complicated.
8. Mrs. Merriweather of the missionary circle complains about her cooks and field hands.
What does that tell us about her?
As a member of the missionary circle, she is very concerned about the welfare of many Africans,
but she does not care at all about the blacks that live in her own town or even work in her own
home. She is a prejudiced hypocrite.
9. What happened to Tom Robinson?
He tried to escape by climbing the fence, and he was shot seventeen times.
10. What more do we learn about Alexandra after Atticus and Calpurnia leave?
She comes off as more sympathetic and likeable here. Not all bad. She clearly loves her brother
and she is concerned about him. She is upset by the news about Tom’s death, and we really
wouldn’t have expected her to be bothered about it at all. She gathers herself and goes back to
attending to her guests. She comes off a lot better here than she has in the book so far. Scout
even begins to have an appreciation for her.
11. What did Mr. Underwood’s editorial say?
He compared the killing of Tom Robinson to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and
children. Surprising because we know Underwood is a racist. Again, people not all good or bad.
Chapters 26-31
1. What was Scout’s fantasy regarding Arthur (Boo) Radley?
That he would be “normal.” She daydreamed that he would be sitting in the swing and they
would chat as if they had chatted every day for all of her life. She wanted him to be normal like
everyone else on the street.
2. What did Scout hear Miss Gates say at the courthouse? In class, Miss Gates said
“That’s the difference between America and Germany.
Scout heard Miss Gates at the courthouse say, “it’s time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they
were getting way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us.”
3. We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship. . . . We don’t believe in persecuting
anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced.” What does this tell us
about Miss Gates?
Miss Gates is a hypocrite who doesn’t realize that that she is just as prejudiced as Hitler is only
for a different group of people.
4. What happened to Judge Taylor?
Someone (we make the inference that this was Bob Ewell) was trying to break into his house
when he and his fat, nondescript dog Ann Taylor scared the person away.
5. What happened to Helen Robinson?
Link Deas “made” a job for her as his cook. She would walk an extra mile to work to avoid
passing the Ewell house because they “chunked at her” (harassed her) when she used the regular
road. Mr. Link Deas ended up escorting Helen on the public road and threatened the Ewells to
leave Helen alone. The first time Helen attempted to walk to work after that, however, Mr. Ewell
followed her, muttering nasty things. He frightened and harassed her all the way to Mr. Link
Deas’s house.
6. What was Scout’s part in the pageant?
She was a ham. Later her ham costume, made of chicken wire and fabric, would save her life.
7. Why did Scout and Jem not leave the school until almost everyone else had gone?
Scout was embarrassed because she fell asleep and missed her entrance. She woke up and rushed
onto the stage during the grand finale, and Mrs. Merriweather told her that she had ruined the
pageant. Everyone else thought it was funny.
8. What happened to Jem and Scout on the way home from the pageant?
They were attacked by Bob Ewell. He tried to stab Scout but the chicken wire in her costume
protected her, then he tried to crush her in her costume. He broke Jem’s arm and Jem was
knocked out.
9. Who saved Jem and Scout? Who died? Who is the killer?
Arthur (Boo) Radley saved Jem and Scout, and he killed Bob Ewell.
10. Why did Heck Tate insist that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife?
Heck figured out that Arthur had killed Bob Ewell with a kitchen knife to protect the children.
He didn’t see any reason to drag Arthur through a big public ordeal that would have been torture
to a man so damaged and private. It would have destroyed Arthur even if he would have been
considered a “hero” and people would have been grateful. Heck Tate thought that Arthur had
done Atticus and the town a favor, and since Ewell had been responsible for the death of an
innocent man, Tom Robinson, it would be best to “let the dead bury the dead” and keep Arthur
Radley out of it. The explanation was that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife. Heck Tate took the
switchblade knife that Ewell had from the scene so there would not be any evidence of a fourth
person having been there that night.
11. Scout arranged things so that “if Miss Stephanie Crawford was watching from her
upstairs window, she would see Arthur Radley escorting [her] down the sidewalk, as any
gentleman would do.” Why did she do that?
Well, he did just save her life, so she now understands that he is a real person, not a dangerous
freak. She wants him to look “normal” like any other gentleman so that Miss Stephanie and
anyone else who might see them together would begin to think of Arthur as a real, normal person
as well.
12. As Scout leaves the Radley porch, she looks out at the neighborhood and recounts the
events of the last few years from the Radleys’ perspective. Why is that important?
All through the book, she and Jem and Dill have tried to follow Atticus’s advice and tried to put
themselves in someone else’s shoes, to look at things from someone else’s perspective, so that
they could understand why people acted the way that they did. It is appropriate that at the end of
the novel, Scout takes the opportunity to look at the neighborhood, Arthur Radley’s entire world,
from his perspective. It made her understand him better and why he risked his own life to save
her and Jem.