To Kill a Mockingbird — Chapter 15

About This Passage

After the Old Sarum men reveal that Heck Tate has been drawn off on a snipe hunt, Atticus rises to face them. Lee gives us not the words of the confrontation but the body of the man — slowness, fingers folding paper, the small tremor he is at pains to control. The passage teaches young writers that fear and resolve are most powerfully shown through ordinary, careful gestures rather than declared in speech.

Narration Prompt

Trace the chapter as a sequence of confrontations: Atticus and the Maycomb men in his front yard, Atticus and the Old Sarum men at the jail, Scout and Mr. Cunningham inside the circle of light, Atticus and Jem in their wordless exchange. What does each confrontation test, and how does each end?

Discussion Questions

1. Atticus tells the men in his yard, 'Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told.' Examine the exact phrasing — not 'till he is acquitted' or 'till justice is done,' but 'till the truth's told.' What is Atticus claiming about his role in the trial that 'the truth's told' captures and the other phrasings would miss?
2. When Mr. Cunningham squats down and tells Scout he will pass her hello to Walter, Lee writes that 'as they had come, in ones and twos the men shuffled back to their ramshackle cars.' Why does Lee give us their disorderly retreat in the same shape as their disorderly arrival, and what is she saying about the structure of a mob?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide