To Kill a Mockingbird — Chapter 17

About This Passage

Lee's image — the Ewells competing with the dump's vermin and arranging the leftovers into a 'playhouse of an insane child' — does the work of an entire social-history paragraph in one sentence. The diction is satirical and tender at once: 'industry' for scavenging, 'playhouse' for a yard fenced with hammer-heads. Lee is preparing the reader to see the Ewell household behind Bob Ewell's testimony.

Narration Prompt

Reconstruct the chapter's two cross-examinations in order — Mr. Heck Tate, then Mr. Bob Ewell — and identify the single fact Atticus extracts from each man that he will need later to argue for Tom Robinson.

Discussion Questions

1. Scout reports that 'from that moment he ceased to terrify me' the instant Mr. Heck Tate sits in the witness chair without his sheriff's costume. What does Harper Lee gain by giving us Scout's reaction to Mr. Tate's clothes before Mr. Tate has said anything substantive about the case?
2. Atticus's voice carries an audible 'edge' at exactly one moment in this chapter — when he asks why no doctor was called for Mayella. What does the placement of that single moment of edge, inside an otherwise amiable cross-examination, reveal about what is actually angering Atticus in this trial?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide