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About This Passage
Lee introduces Judge Taylor through a series of homely physical details that look casual but are precisely chosen. The amiable face, the propped feet, and the pocket-knife fingernail trim establish a judge whose ordinariness is the disguise of his real, attentive command of the courtroom — the same command Lee will need the reader to trust through the long trial chapters that follow.
Judge Taylor looked like most judges I had ever seen: amiable, white-haired, slightly ruddy-faced, he was a man who ran his court with an alarming informality—he sometimes propped his feet up, he ofte...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the morning after the Maycomb jail confrontation. What does Atticus tell Jem and Scout at breakfast about Mr. Cunningham, what does Aunt Alexandra say about Calpurnia, and where do the children go after dinner?
Discussion Questions
- Atticus draws a careful distinction at breakfast between Mr. Cunningham 'part of a mob last night' and Mr. Cunningham 'still a man.' Examine how this distinction operates as Atticus's working theory of the relationship between individual character and collective behavior in Maycomb.
- Aunt Alexandra and Atticus continue their long argument over Calpurnia's standing in the family, with Atticus answering, 'Anything fit to say at the table's fit to say in front of Calpurnia. She knows what she means to this family.' Analyze how Lee uses small dining-room exchanges to dramatize a substantive disagreement about who counts as kin.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Friendly and pleasant in manner; easy to like and easy to be around.
Item 2
Causing surprise or worry, often in a way that does not seem fitting.
Item 3
A relaxed, casual way of doing things, without the strict rules or stiff manners that are usually expected.
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Critical Thinking
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