To Kill a Mockingbird — Chapter 25

About This Passage

Mr. B. B. Underwood, editor of The Maycomb Tribune, has written an editorial about Tom Robinson's death. He does not write the way a lawyer would. He writes the way a child would understand. He calls Tom's killing 'a sin,' and he compares it to 'the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.' This is the chapter where the title of the novel — to kill a mockingbird — comes most clearly into view. A man who runs an advertising-supported small-town newspaper risks losing every advertiser when he writes this. He does not care.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 25 as three connected scenes. Scene one: the back porch — Jem stops Scout from killing the roly-poly. Scene two: Dill's account — Atticus and Calpurnia driving to Helen Robinson's cabin and Helen falling into the dirt. Scene three: Maycomb's reaction to Tom's death and Mr. Underwood's editorial. Tie the three scenes together by the common thread of how a creature or a person can be treated as small, worthy, or invisible.

Discussion Questions

1. Jem stops Scout from squashing the roly-poly with the words, 'Because they don't bother you.' How does this rule extend Atticus's earlier teaching about mockingbirds, and what does it suggest about how Jem has changed since the trial?
2. Dill describes Helen Robinson collapsing 'like a giant with a big foot just came along and stepped on her. Just ump—Like you'd step on an ant.' Why does Lee place this image of a person being stepped on in the same chapter that opens with a child being told not to step on a bug?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide