Chapter Summaries

A whole year passes, and Scout is disenchanted with school life. The mystery of the Radley place deepens as the children begin to find small gifts in a tree outside. As yet, Scout does not suspect that these come from Boo. Dill arrives, and the children invent a new game re-enacting the drama of Boo Radley’s life. Scout rolls inside a tire into the Radley garden. Afterwards, Scout is apprehensive partly because she sense that Atticus disapproves of their game, partly because - unknown to the boys –she heard laughter coming from behind a shutter at the Radley place.

Scout, having been edged out of the boys’ games for a while, spends her time with Miss Maudie Atkinson. Miss Maude is their friendliest neighbor, kind and generous to the children. She is critical of the local gossip, Miss Crawford, and of religious bigots like Mr Radley. She has tremendous sympathy for Boo Radley, whom she feels has been cruelly treated. The children’s last attempt to communicate with Boo fails when Atticus catches them using a pole to push a note through one of the Radley’s shutters. He forbids them to torment Boo any more, and urges them to look at their behavior from Boo’s point of view.

Despite Atticus’ ban, the children try a final time to make contact with Boo. They go at night and catch sight of a shadowy figure in the Radley backyard. Before they can discover its identity, the sound of Nathan Radley’s gun frightens them off the premises. As they escape, Jem loses his trousers on some barbed wire. It takes all Dill’s quick wits to make up a possible reason for their disappearance – he says that he beat Jem at strip-poker. Jem, fearing Atticus’ anger more than Mr Radley’s shotgun, goes back that night to retrieve his trousers.

Jem is growing up, and to Scout’s disappointment, is unwilling to play with her any more. While Atticus is away, Calpurnia takes the children to church. It is as memorable experience for them. They meet hostility from one person, Lula, but the majority are welcoming. Scout attends the service with interest and notices many similarities with their own church. A collection is made in the church for Helen Robinson and her children. Calpurnia tells Scout that Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Aunt Alexandra arrives.

Aunt Alexandra comes to stay indefinitely because she feels that the children need feminine influence during their crucial years of growing up. She is obsessed with ‘good breeding’ and fits in well with the neighbors, but not with the children because she demands different standards of behavior from those they are used to. Atticus is torn between being courteous to his sister and raising Jem and Scout as he sees fit. After one attempt to try and impose his sister’s standards on the children, he gives up.

Having Aunt Alexandra living with the Finch family requires some adjustments, but Atticus has to refuse his sister’s request to get rid of Calpurnia. Atticus has high regard for their cook, and his sister’s arrival does not change that. Scout dislikes Jem’s new maturity, and when he tries to talk to her as though he were an adult she fights him with her fists. Sent to her room as a punishment, Scout is amazed to find Dill hiding under her bed. Jem shows that he has left childhood behind when he decides to tell Atticus of Dill’s presence. Atticus is understanding and, after informing Dill’s aunt, allows Dill to stay the night.

Jem is outraged at the verdict and Atticus does not attempt to shield him from his new-found awareness of the injustice of Maycomb people. The next day, the black community send gifts to show their appreciation of Atticus, and he is visibly moved. The majority of the neighbors accept the verdict without surprise and feel Atticus was foolish to defend Tom. Bob Ewell insults Atticus by spiting in his face, and threatens future trouble.

Predictably, Atticus reacts calmly to Bob Ewell’s assault, and dismisses the children’s fears for his safety by making them look at the situation from Bob Ewell’s point of view. But Scout and Jem are still worried. Aunt Alexandra feels that Atticus is too optimistic about Bob Ewell. Atticus explains to Jem that there can be no fairer system of justice until people’s basic prejudices are changed, and that will not happen quickly. Atticus reveals that it was a Cunningham who caused the jury to take longer in making up its mind. Initially the Cunningham wanted Tom to be acquitted.

Aunt Alexandra holds a missionary tea and the ladies of Maycomb attend. They reveal their hypocrisy as they talk with sympathy about poor Africans but with no sympathy for the local black people. Mrs Merriweather talks about the poverty of the Mrunas and about how she cannot understand them. She also cannot understand why Atticus should want to defend. Scout is puzzled and unimpressed by their insinuations and leading questions – which make her the but of their amusement. She comments that she prefers the openness of men to the company of ladies. However, her opinion changes when she sees how Aunt Alexandra conquers her emotions on hearing of Tom’s death and manages to continue normally in company. Atticus relates the events surrounding Tom’s death in a matter-of- fact way which conveys little emotion; the only clue to his feelings is the comment that Tom had seventeen bullet holes in him and that ‘they didn’t have to shoot him that much’.