To Kill a Mockingbird — Chapter 22

About This Passage

This passage carries the entire weight of the morning after — Aunt Alexandra's first softening toward her brother, Jem's first suspicion that Atticus himself might be partly responsible for the verdict, and Atticus's quiet exhaustion. Lee chooses careful precise words: Alexandra murmurs (not speaks), Jem says his name bleakly (not loudly), Atticus is impassive (not blank). Copying the passage trains the writer to respect how a single chosen word can carry a whole chapter's emotional weather.

Narration Prompt

In your own words, retell the chapter's main events: Atticus and the children walking home, Aunt Alexandra waiting up, the food on the back steps, the visit to Miss Maudie's kitchen, Dill's speech about clowns, and the news at the end of the chapter about Mr. Bob Ewell.

Discussion Questions

1. Aunt Alexandra calls Atticus 'brother' for the first time in the entire book. What does this small change in how she speaks to him tell you about how the verdict has changed her feelings, and why does Lee place this word in the very first thing she says to him after the trial?
2. Atticus tells Jem, 'They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it — seems that only children weep.' What is Atticus saying about who in Maycomb is honest enough to feel the verdict, and why does he include himself with the grown-ups who do not weep?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide