Summary: Chapter 23
Bob Ewell’s threats are worrisome
to everyone except Atticus. Atticus tells Jem and Scout that because
he made Ewell look like a fool, Ewell needed to get revenge. Now
that Ewell has gotten that vengefulness out of his system, Atticus
expects no more trouble. Aunt Alexandra and the children remain
worried. Meanwhile, Tom Robinson has been sent to another prison
seventy miles away while his appeal winds through the court system.
Atticus feels that his client has a good chance of being pardoned.
When Scout asks what will happen if Tom loses, Atticus replies that
Tom will go to the electric chair, as rape is a capital offense
in Alabama.
Jem and Atticus discuss the justice of executing men for
rape. The subject then turns to jury trials and to how all twelve
men could have convicted Tom. Atticus tells Jem that in an Alabama
court of law, a white man’s word always beats a black man’s, and
that they were lucky to have the jury out so long. In fact, one
man on the jury wanted to acquit—amazingly, it was one of the Cunninghams. Upon hearing
this revelation, Scout announces that she wants to invite young Walter
Cunningham to dinner, but Aunt Alexandra expressly forbids it, telling
her that the Finches do not associate with trash.
Scout grows furious, and Jem hastily takes her out of
the room. In his bedroom, Jem reveals his minimal growth of chest
hair and tells Scout that he is going to try out for the football
team in the fall. They discuss the class system—why their aunt despises
the Cunninghams, why the Cunninghams look down on the Ewells, who hate
black people, and other such matters. After being unable to figure
out why people go out of their way to despise each other, Jem suggests
Boo Radley does not come out of his house because he does not want
to leave it.
Summary: Chapter 24
One day in August, Aunt Alexandra invites her
missionary circle to tea. Scout, wearing a dress, helps Calpurnia
bring in the tea, and Alexandra invites Scout to stay with the ladies.
Scout listens to the missionary circle first discuss the plight
of the poor Mrunas, a benighted African tribe being converted to
Christianity, and then talk about how their own black servants have
behaved badly ever since Tom Robinson’s trial. Miss Maudie shuts
up their prattle with icy remarks. Suddenly, Atticus appears and calls
Alexandra to the kitchen. There he tells her, Scout, Calpurnia,
and Miss Maudie that Tom Robinson attempted to escape and was shot
seventeen times. He takes Calpurnia with him to tell the Robinson
family of Tom’s death. Alexandra asks Miss Maudie how the town can
allow Atticus to wreck himself in pursuit of justice. Maudie replies
that the town trusts him to do right. They return with Scout to
the missionary circle, managing to act as if nothing is wrong.
Summary: Chapter 25
September has begun and Jem and Scout are on the back
porch when Scout notices a roly-poly bug. She is about to mash it
with her hand when Jem tells her not to. She dutifully places the
bug outside. When she asks Jem why she shouldn’t have mashed it,
he replies that the bug didn’t do anything to harm her. Scout observes
that it is Jem, not she, who is becoming more and more like a girl.
Her thoughts turn to Dill, and she remembers him telling her that
he and Jem ran into Atticus as they started home from swimming during
the last two days of August. Jem had convinced Atticus to let them
accompany him to Helen Robinson’s house, where they saw her collapse even
before Atticus could say that her husband, Tom, was dead. Meanwhile,
the news occupies Maycomb’s attention for about two days, and everyone
agrees that it is typical for a black man to do something irrational
like try to escape. Mr. Underwood writes a long editorial condemning
Tom’s death as the murder of an innocent man. The only other significant
reaction comes when Bob Ewell is overheard saying that Tom’s death
makes “one down and about two more to go.” Summer ends and Dill
leaves.
Analysis: Chapters 23–25
When he reassures his family that Bob Ewell does not really
intend to harm him, Atticus advises Jem to stand in Bob Ewell’s
shoes, echoing the advice that he gives Scout earlier in the novel
and evoking one of the most important moral themes in the book.
Here, however, Atticus’s attempt to understand another human falls
short: he makes an honest mistake in his analysis by failing to
understand the depth of Ewell’s anger toward him. Aunt Alexandra
is more insightful, maintaining that a man like Ewell will do anything
to get revenge. Although her comments seem typical of her tendency
to stereotype “those people” who are different from the Finches,
her analysis of Ewell proves correct. For all her faults, Aunt Alexandra gains,
by way of her stereotypes, a basically reliable understanding of
the people of Maycomb.
