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Copywork
About This Passage
Atticus has taught Scout that the ear is more honest than the eye when judging a witness. Lee sets this lesson in the middle of Tom Robinson's testimony so the reader applies the same listening test the narrator does. The sentence also names the famous Shakespearean rule — the witness who protests too much — and then quietly turns it inside out: Tom protests, but quietly, with no whining, and Scout believes him anyway.
Atticus sometimes said that one way to tell whether a witness was lying or telling the truth was to listen rather than watch: I applied his test—Tom denied it three times in one breath, but quietly, w...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In two or three sentences, retell what Tom Robinson tells the courtroom happened on the evening of November twenty-first at the Ewell place — from passing the porch through running away after Mr. Bob Ewell shouted through the window.
Discussion Questions
- How does Atticus's opening sequence of questions about Tom Robinson's age, family, work for Mr. Link Deas, and prior thirty-day conviction shape what the jury sees before Tom describes the November evening?
- What is Lee doing when she has Tom Robinson lift his crippled left arm onto the Bible with his right hand before the testimony even begins?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A person who tells a court what they saw, heard, or know about an event.
Item 2
Found guilty of a crime by a court.
Item 3
Knowing someone, but not yet a close friend.
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Critical Thinking
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