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Copywork
About This Passage
Harper Lee shows Mr. Heck Tate at his most disciplined — leaning forward, hands held still, attention fixed on the circuit solicitor. The whole posture is the opposite of the rough sheriff in boots and a bullet-studded belt. Lee is showing that the courtroom asks even hard men to make themselves still.
He was sitting forward in the witness chair, his hands clasped between his knees, listening attentively to the circuit solicitor.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the order of testimony in this chapter — Mr. Heck Tate first, then Mr. Bob Ewell — and identify the single moment in each man's testimony that turned out to matter most to Atticus's case.
Discussion Questions
- Scout says that 'from that moment he ceased to terrify me' the instant Mr. Heck Tate sits in the witness chair without his boots and bullet-studded belt. What does this tell us about how Scout had been understanding Mr. Tate up to this point in Maycomb?
- Atticus's voice carries an 'edge' only when he presses Mr. Heck Tate about why no doctor was called for Mayella. What does that single moment of edge in an otherwise calm cross-examination reveal about what Atticus is actually furious about?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Plain and not special; the kind a regular person would have.
Item 2
A person who tells what they saw or know in a court of law.
Item 3
Describing a lawyer who travels to several towns to handle court cases.
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Critical Thinking
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