To Kill a Mockingbird — Chapter 9

About This Passage

Selected for thematic weight (this is one of the novel's most important philosophical statements — Atticus is articulating the doctrine that conscience is not subject to majority rule, which is the foundation of his entire defense of Tom Robinson and the foundation of every act of moral courage in the novel), rhetorical sophistication (Lee builds the passage as a small Socratic dialogue, with Scout pushing and Atticus responding, and ends on the aphoristic 'a person's conscience' that lands like the conclusion of an argument), and instructional value for a young writer learning the prose of the moral exchange.

Narration Prompt

Summarize this chapter, then explain what you think the author most wanted the reader to notice or feel. What techniques did the author use?

Discussion Questions

1. Atticus's claim that conscience does not 'abide by majority rule' is one of the novel's most consequential philosophical statements. It is also one of its most politically loaded. Consider the claim against the philosophical literature on the relationship between democracy and individual moral judgment. Some thinkers (Mill, Rawls) have argued that majority rule is the proper foundation of legitimate political authority; others (Thoreau, the natural law tradition) have argued that conscience must remain free to refuse what the majority commands. Where does Lee's Atticus stand in this debate, and what does his position cost him in a community where the majority will eventually convict Tom Robinson?
2. Lee structures the chapter around three sources of pressure on Atticus's decision to take Tom Robinson's case: Cecil Jacobs (the schoolyard cruelty that reaches Scout), Aunt Alexandra (the family pressure to be more conventional), and Cousin Francis (the gossip that has spread even into the Finch family Christmas). Consider Lee's compositional choice to place all three pressures in a single chapter. What is she suggesting about the multiple fronts on which moral courage has to be sustained, and how does the chapter prepare the reader for the much larger pressures of the trial chapters?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide