Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews December 12, 2023 December 5, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The novel ends after Bob Ewell attacks Scout and Jem, and Boo Radley rescues them, killing Bob in the process. Atticus and Sheriff Heck Tate have a conversation about how to deal with the situation, and Scout walks Boo home. The conversation between Atticus and Heck can be difficult to understand, because the two men are talking about two different things. Atticus, who believes Jem is the one who killed Bob, thinks Heck wants to cover up the truth to protect Jem. Atticus is adamantly against lying to protect Jem. He thinks that protecting Jem from the law will undermine Atticus’s relationship with his children and everything that he has taught them. Heck, however, realizes that Boo killed Bob Ewell, and wants to cover up the truth to protect Boo. Heck doesn’t believe that Boo will be in any kind of legal trouble, because he was clearly protecting the children, but he thinks that the community will want to thank Boo and make him a hero which would be ruinous to Boo’s intense desire for privacy.
Atticus vehemently opposes covering up Jem’s involvement in Bob Ewell’s death, but he accepts that covering up Boo’s involvement is the right decision. This apparent inconsistency is an important moment in the reader’s understanding of Atticus and his motivations. Atticus is a highly principled man who values law and justice, but he is a man who values his relationship with his children even more. Atticus is not afraid that covering up Jem’s involvement will be unethical or illegal. He is concerned that doing something so hypocritical will ruin his relationship with his children. Atticus would rather that Jem face some difficulties than think that his father did not hold him to the same standard as everyone else. Atticus does not have that kind of relationship with Boo, and in fact likely owes Boo for the lives of both of his children, so Atticus is willing to accept that subjecting Boo to public scrutiny would be a mistake.
Another important aspect of the novel’s ending is Scout’s walk home with Boo. Boo specifically asks Scout to take him home – his only spoken lines of dialogue in the entire novel, revealing that this character who has been a source of fear for so many of the townspeople, including Scout and Jem, is actually quite fearful himself. In seeing Boo’s fear, Scout is put into the position of wanting to protect him, and his dignity, from the rest of the town. Calling Boo “Mr. Radley,” Scout takes him arm so that it looks like Boo is the one who is walking her down the street. In protecting Boo’s dignity and empathizing with his fear, Scout puts herself in another person’s shoes and thinks about the world from their perspective, just as Atticus instructed her. Atticus’s final lines, that most people are nice when you finally see them for who they are, underscores Scout’s maturation process from a child who was irrationally afraid of Boo to an adult capable of seeing Boo as a human being.
Please wait while we process your payment