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To Kill a Mockingbird - Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 17 Summary

Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor, begins his case by having Sheriff Tate relate the incidents of the evening of November 21. Bob Ewell called him to the Ewell residence because he claimed his daughter Mayella was raped by Tom Robinson. When the sheriff arrived, he found Mayella beaten and bruised. When the Sheriff is cross-examined, the Sheriff admits the doctor was not called and the bruises were on the right side of her face.

The Ewells live in a cabin behind the garage dump. The only bright spot in their yard is where Mayella supposedly planted geraniums. Ewell says that he was coming home and heard his daughter yelling. When he looked in the window, he claimed that Tom Robinson raping her. Tom left the house and Ewell went inside to check on his daughter. When he was asked why they didn't call a doctor...

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FOLLOW BOOKRAGS:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Literature Notes
• Chapters 17-20
• To Kill a Mockingbird at a Glance
• Book Summary
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Part 1: Chapter 1
• Part 1: Chapters 2-3
• Part 1: Chapters 4-5
• Part 1: Chapters 6-7
• Part 1: Chapters 8-9
• Part 1: Chapters 10-11
• Part 2: Chapters 12-13
• Part 2: Chapters 14-16
• Part 2: Chapters 17-20
• Part 2: Chapters 21-23
• Part 2: Chapters 24-26
• Part 2: Chapters 27-28
• Part 2: Chapters 29-31
• Character Analysis
• Scout (Jean Louise) Finch
• Atticus Finch
• Dill Harris
• Boo Radley and Tom Robinson
• Aunt Alexandra and Miss Maudie Atkinson
• Bob and Mayella Ewell
• Character Map
• About To Kill a Mockingbird
• Harper Lee Biography
• Critical Essays
• Racial Relations in the Southern United States
• Comparing To Kill a Mockingbird to Its Movie Version
• Famous Quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird
• Film Versions of To Kill a Mockingbird
• Full Glossary for To Kill a Mockingbird
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Summary and Analysis Part 2: Chapters 17-20

The trial begins. Heck Tate is the first witness. Under cross-examination, he admits that a doctor was never called to the scene to examine Mayella Ewell. Bob Ewell takes the stand next and causes a stir in the courtroom with his bad attitude and foul language. Mr. Ewell is not shaken from his story, but Atticus carefully plants the seed that Mr. Ewell himself could've beaten Mayella. Mayella takes the stand next. Even though Atticus believes that she's lying, he treats her with courtesy and respect; Mayella thinks that he's making fun of her. Her testimony soon proves that Mayella is unused to gentility and common courtesy. Atticus asks Tom to stand up so that Mayella may identify him; as he does, Scout notices that Tom's left arm is withered and useless — he could not have committed the crime in the way it was described. The state rests its case.

Atticus calls only one witness — Tom Robinson. Tom tells the true story, being careful all the while not to come right out and say that Mayella is lying. However, Tom makes a fatal error when he admits under cross-examination that he, a black man, felt sorry for Mayella Ewell. Dill has a very emotional response to Mr. Gilmer's questioning and leaves the courtroom in tears. Scout follows Dill outside, where they talk with Dolphus Raymond, who reveals the secret behind his brown bag and his drinking. Scout and Dill return to the courtroom in time to hear the last half of Atticus' impassioned speech to the jury. Just as Atticus finishes, Calpurnia walks into the courtroom and heads toward Atticus.

At this point in the story, readers may be tempted to think that Tom Robinson's trial is basically about white prejudice against African Americans. Prejudice certainly does come to play in the court proceedings, but Lee explores much deeper human emotions and societal ideals than the straightforward mistreatment of a person based on skin color.

The Ewells are what people today would call "white trash." Scout sums the Ewells up when she says "people like the Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths of depression. No truant officers could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings." The Ewells forage for food, furnishings, and water at the town dump, which is very close to their shack. Just beyond their home is a "Negro settlement." Atticus had once taken Scout and Jem out to the dump to discard their Christmas tree, and Scout noticed that the black people's houses were modest but neat and appeared to be clean with aromatic smells rising from their kitchens — quite a contrast to the Ewells' surroundings. The fact is that most in the African American community live cleaner, more honest, and more productive lives than the Ewells. Consequently, the resentment against blacks on the part of the "white trash" runs deep.

Against this backdrop of a trial where a "white-trash" female is accusing a black man of a violent crime, Lee expertly explores several of the novel's major themes while focusing on the questions of prejudice and class or social station.

In Maycomb during the time of Tom Robinson's trial, African Americans reside at the bottom of the totem pole as far as power in the community. Even Scout, who probably can't yet define the term "prejudice," tells Dill, "'Well, Dill, after all, he's just a Negro.'" Scout's community has so reinforced the low station of blacks that she innocently accepts and helps maintain that station. In Scout's world, some things just are, and the fact that blacks are "just Negroes" is one of them. In fact, Scout shows her lack of intentional prejudice by admitting "If he [Tom Robinson] had been whole, he would have been a fine specimen of a man."

It is fair to assume, however, that the adult Scout who is actually telling the story has come to understand the error of thinking that any human being is lesser than another based solely on skin color. If Scout believed that blacks were truly lesser, then her character would have no reason for telling this story — the story she'd tell, if she told one at all, would be markedly different.

The blacks in the community accept their lot. They may not like the treatment they receive, but to defy the rules set by the community means literally risking their lives. Tom Robinson did nothing but help Mayella Ewell. In fact, he "was probably the only person who was ever decent to her." The only thing that Tom is guilty of is feeling sorry for Mayella. But, for an African American man to publicly admit feeling pity for any white person is overstepping societal bounds.

In truth, Tom embarrasses Mayella by refusing her advances and Mayella embarrasses her father by making advances toward a black man. Bob Ewell's pride can't afford for a black man to go back to his community talking about a white woman making a pass at him. Worse yet, Tom is now aware of incest in the Ewell household, something that is taboo in every class. Tom was unlikely to tell anyone of what had happened with Mayella, recognizing that his safety was at stake. Bob Ewell could've let the whole thing drop, but he'd rather be responsible for an innocent man's death than risk having his family further diminished in the town's eyes.

Truthfully, Tom's testimony actually embarrasses the Ewells more. Tom tells the court that Mayella asked him to kiss her saying, "'what her papa do to her don't count,'" which informs the whole town that Bob Ewell sexually abuses his daughter. He further tells the court that Bob called his own child a "goddamn whore." Tom is careful to never directly accuse Mayella of lying, repeatedly qualifying, "'she's mistaken in her mind.'"

Tom is a compassionate man, and ironically, his acts of kindness are responsible, at least indirectly, for his current situation. In Maycomb society (and, truthfully, the Southern United States at this time), basic human kindness from a black person to a white person is impermissible. The consequences are deadly when the "lesser" show their compassion — and then have the audacity to admit it — for the "greater."

The all-white jury is in an awkward position. If they acquit a black man who admittedly pities a white person, then they're voting to lessen their own power over the black community. However, if they convict Tom, they do so knowing that they're sentencing an innocent man to death. Mayella makes their choice very easy when she looks at the jury and says, "'That nigger yonder took advantage of me an' if you fine fancy gentlemen don't wanta do nothin' about it then you're all yellow stinkin' cowards.'"

The remaining question about Tom's innocence is why did he run from the Ewell property if he did nothing wrong? Atticus explains that Tom was truly between a rock and a hard place: "he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run — a sure sign of guilt." The rules are so clearly defined in favor of white people that Tom was literally doomed the moment Bob and Mayella Ewell decided to accuse him.

Dill, a child who has not yet reached Scout's level of acceptance about societal prejudices, reacts strongly to the lack of respect African Americans are shown. As Dill and Scout leave the courtroom for a few minutes, Dolphus Raymond explains his own disdain for "'the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too.'" In fact, Raymond is so disturbed by this dichotomy that he prefers to live amongst black people; however, in order to save himself and his family from the same treatment that Tom is receiving, he pretends to be a drunkard. The white community excuses his behavior because they believe he is an alcoholic who "can't help himself." The thought has yet to occur to anyone that a white man may enjoy the company of African American people. With that conversation, Scout is further educated about prejudice and the negative consequences that result from it.

When Bob Ewell takes the witness stand, Scout notes that the only thing "that made him better than his nearest neighbors was, that if scrubbed with lye soap in very hot water, his skin was white." It is ironic that the Ewells are so dirt-covered that identifying their skin color is difficult. Ewell testifies with the confidence of someone who knows he's already won. If his case weren't so clear cut in his eyes, he wouldn't make lewd jokes when being questioned on the witness stand.

The more sophisticated white people in Maycomb at least try to pretend that their prejudices don't run so deep, but Ewell is beyond this sort of genteel pretense. He boldly tells Judge Taylor that he's "'asked this county for fifteen years to clean out that nest down yonder, they're dangerous to live around 'sides devaluin' my property — '" If a man's life were not at stake, Ewell's testimony would be laughable. No one — not even a neighborhood of "lower-class" blacks — can devalue a piece of property that is basically an extension of the town dump. And, the entire courtroom will soon realize that the danger actually lies in living close to the Ewells, not vice versa.

Atticus gently shows the injustice of Tom's situation throughout the court proceedings. For instance, Atticus makes a point of noting that even though Mayella was badly beaten and claimed to have been brutally raped, no doctor was ever called to the scene. When he asks Sheriff Tate why he didn't call a doctor, the answer is a simple "'It wasn't necessary, Mr. Finch.  . . . Something sho' happened, it was obvious.'" Of course, a doctor could have verified that Mayella had not been raped, and if a white man had been accused, a doctor almost surely would've been called. But Tom Robinson is a black man, so calling a doctor simply "wasn't necessary," another indicator of the deep-running prejudice that blacks in Maycomb live with every day.

Scout (as well as Judge Taylor) is genuinely surprised when Mayella claims that Atticus is mocking her. He is only treating her respectfully. That Lee chooses the word "mock" here is important. Mockingbirds repeat sounds they hear. They're like little echo machines. Atticus is only repeating the story as it really happened, but in this case, an echo is a very dangerous thing to Mayella. Lee describes Mayella as being like "a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tail," which is ironic given that Tom is much like a mockingbird just trying to make her life easier and more enjoyable. Cats hunt birds, and Lee's description is of a cat stalking prey. After Mayella's testimony, Scout suddenly understands that Mayella is "even lonelier than Boo Radley."

During his closing argument, Atticus ties the questions of race and social station together. Making no judgement about Mayella, Atticus tells the jury that "'she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with.  . . . What did she do? She tempted a Negro.'" Atticus admits that like Tom Robinson, he pities Mayella Ewell, but Atticus is white and educated and so is allowed to feel that pity.

Had Tom Robinson been a woman accused of seducing a white man, the outcome of the trial would be no different. How then, is Dolphus Raymond allowed to live and procreate with black women? He's white, he owns land, and he comes from a "fine old family." Simply stated, the rules are different for a white male with this pedigree. Ironically, Scout thinks of Mayella as facing the same problems that a mixed child deals with: "white people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn't have anything to do with her because she was white." Class can be as big a separator within a community as race.

bantam cock a small but aggressive person; a bantam is a small domestic fowl.

crepey wrinkled like crepe cloth or paper.

acrimonious bitter and caustic in temper, manner, or speech.

ruttin' referring to rut, the periodic sexual excitement, or heat, of certain mammals: applied esp. to males.

tenet principle, doctrine, or belief held as a truth, as by some group.

ambidextrous able to use both hands with equal ease.

lavation the act of washing.

chiffarobe a wardrobe with drawers or shelves on one side.

frog-sticking a method of hunting frogs on bayou banks with a small pitchfork.

constructionist a person who interprets, or believes in interpreting, a law, document, etc. in a specified way.

ground-itch an itchy allergic reaction caused when parasitic hookworms enter the body through bare feet.

ex cathedra with the authority that comes from one's rank or office: often specif. with reference to papal pronouncements, on matters of faith or morals, regarded as having authoritative finality.

impudent shamelessly bold or disrespectful; saucy; insolent.

corroborative making certain; confirming; corroborating.

temerity foolish or rash boldness; foolhardiness; recklessness.

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To Kill a Mockingbird

105 pages • 3 hours read

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Chapters 17-20 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 summary.

The trial begins, and Sheriff Heck Tate is called to the stand. Tate testifies that Bob Ewell came to him on the night of November 21 and summoned him to the Ewell house: a tin-roofed cabin on the outskirts of town near the dump. Tate arrived at the house to find Ewell’s daughter, Mayella, lying in the middle of the floor, where she was “pretty well beat up” (190). When Tate asked what happened, Mayella claimed that Tom Robinson beat her and raped her. Tate then brought Tom back to the station, where Mayella formally identified him.

In his cross-examination, Atticus asks Tate if anyone called a doctor out of concern for Mayella’s condition. Tate confirms that a doctor was not called, suggesting that he was primarily focused on identifying the suspect. He briefly describes the injuries Mayella sustained, emphasizing that she had bruises on the right side of her face.

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• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 1-2
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 3-4
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 5-6
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To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 17-18

• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 19-20
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 21-22
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 23-24
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 25-26
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 27-28
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapters 29-30
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Novel Summary: Chapter 31
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Character Profiles
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Metaphor Analysis
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Theme Analysis
• To Kill A Mockingbird: Top Ten Quotes
• To Kill a Mockingbird: Biography: Harper Lee

Chapters 17-18

Chapter 17: Mr. Gilmer, the prosecuting attorney, calls Sheriff Tate to the stand first.  Tate describes how Bob Ewell called him to the scene of the crime, his own house, one afternoon.  Upon arrival, Tate recollects, he finds Mayella Ewell, Bob's daughter, badly beaten with marks around her neck and bruises about her face especially around her right eye.  His testimony makes it sound as if someone used both hands to grab Mayella around the neck and strike her in the face at the same time.  Atticus's questioning reveals that no one, including Tate, ever contacted a doctor.  Everyone had simply assumed that a rape had occurred due to the nature of Mayella's external injuries. Next Mr. Gilmer calls Bob Ewell to the stand.  Bob explains the story exactly as Tate explained it.  He adds nothing new to the prosecution's story except that he claims he saw Tom Robinson beating Mayella.  He didn't chase Tom, he says, because he stays in the house to help Mayella.  Upon cross-examination, however, Atticus shows that Bob is left-handed and that he didn't call a doctor either.  Atticus's questions embarrass Bob Ewell who sneers and bristles when Atticus speaks to him.  Chapter 18: Mayella takes the stand next.  To Mr. Gilmer's questions Mayella responds that she asked Tom Robinson into the yard to help her chop up a chiffarobe (a wooden dresser).  She claims that she had never asked Tom onto the property before even though Tom passes the Ewell property everyday on his way to work.  As Mayella went inside to fetch a nickel for Tom, she states, Tom followed her into the house where he raped and beat her.  To Atticus, Mayella acts like a hostile witness, she thinks Atticus is making fun of her because of the respectful language he uses to address her.  Mayella reveals to Atticus that Bob Ewell is a good father except when he drinks and describes the poor conditions in which she and her seven siblings live.  When Atticus asks Mayella to identify her attacker she points to Tom Robinson who stands to face her.  When Tom stands, however, we realize that his left arm, having been mangled in a cotton gin when he was twelve, hangs limply to his side.  To Jem and Scout it is obvious that Tom could not have attacked Mayella with only his right hand.  Mayella leaves the stand defiantly.

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• Chapters 1 - 8:
• Chapter 1 Summary
• Chapter 2 Summary
• Chapter 3 Summary
• Chapter 4 Summary
• Chapter 5 Summary
• Chapter 6 Summary
• Chpater 7 Summary
• Chapter 8 Summary
• Analysis of Chapters 1 - 8
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• Analysis of Chapters 9 - 14
• Chapters 15 - 21:
• Chapter 15 Summary
• Chapter 16 Summary
• Chapter 17 Summary
• Chapter 18 Summary
• Chapter 19 Summary
• Chapter 20 Summary
• Chapter 21 Summary
• Analysis of Chapters 15 - 21
• Chapters 22 - 26:
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• Chapter 23 Summary
• Chapter 24 Summary
• Chapter 25 Summary
• Chapter 26 Summary
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• Chapters 27 - 31:
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• Chapter 28 Summary
• Chapter 29 Summary
• Chapter 30 Summary
• Chapter 31 Summary
• Analysis of Chapters 27 - 31
• Code of Conduct
• Deceptive Appearances
• Racism and Acceptance
• Atticus Finch
• Aunt Alexandra
• Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, Dolphous Raymond
• Maudie Atkinson and Calpurnia
• Important Quotes

To Kill A Mockingbird Summary of Chapter 17 by Harper Lee

Sheriff Tate testifies that Bob Ewell came to him saying that his daughter Mayella had been raped by Tom Robinson. Atticus questions Bob Ewell and asks him about why a doctor was not called. Ewell says that it was plain enough to see what had happened to Mayella. Throughout the testimony Bob also explains that Mayella received a black right eye in the attack. Atticus gets Ewell to admit that he is left handed, part of his plan to make the jury realize that it was Ewell who probably beat Mayella.

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As the trial begins, Sheriff Tate gives his testimony, stating that Bob Ewell entered his office claiming his daughter Mayella had been raped and beaten by a black man. They went to the Ewells,' and she identified her attacker as Tom Robinson. When Atticus cross-examined him, he established that they didn't call a doctor and that the right side of Mayella's face received most of the beating, meaning the assailant was left handed. When Bob Ewell steps onto the stand, Scout reveals a backstory about the Ewells that every town has a family like them which is poor and are angry about it. Bob Ewell's story matches the sheriff's, but Atticus sees loopholes in it, like the fact that they never called a doctor; and shows him to be left handed – a possibility that he could have been Mayella's rapist. Jem is excited about the proceedings, but Scout isn't.

Lee gives the details of the trial as a tense moment for the reader, as well as for Jem and Scout. Bob Ewell’s story has gaping holes, but even though Atticus attempts to clearly lay bare all the gaps, the case boils down to race; the whites and the blacks. Bob Ewell is incapable of relating to anyone in a positive way. He is so fascinating and easy to hate because he represents the exact opposite of Atticus and his children. The saddest thing is that he infects the people around him with bitterness, especially his children such as Burris Ewell, who is undoubtedly poised to be the ‘Bob Ewell’ of the next generation judging by the way he behaved towards Miss  Caroline in chapter 3.

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To Kill a Mockingbird

Everything you need for every book you read..

In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the middle of the Great Depression, six-year-old Scout Finch lives with her older brother, Jem , and her widowed father, Atticus . Atticus is a lawyer and makes enough to keep the family comfortably out of poverty, but he works long days. He relies on the family's black cook, Calpurnia , to help raise the kids. Scout, however, finds Calpurnia tyrannical and believes that Calpurnia favors Jem over her.

Scout and Jem spend much of their time creating and acting out fantasies. One year, a boy named Dill comes to spend the summer with his aunt, the Finches' neighbor Miss Rachel . The three children become friends, and, pushed by Dill's wild imagination, soon become obsessed with a nearby house called Radley Place. A man named Nathan Radley owns the house, but it is his reclusive brother, Arthur Radley (whom the children call Boo) who interests and terrifies them—he is supposedly locked up in the house and once stabbed his father, Mr. Radley , with scissors. Local children believe that he’s impossibly tall, drools, and eats neighborhood cats and squirrels. On a dare, Jem runs up and touches the Radley house, and Scout is sure she sees someone watching them from inside behind a curtain.

Summer ends, and Dill returns to Mississippi. Scout starts school, which she hates despite looking forward to it. On the first day, her teacher, Miss Caroline , criticizes her for already knowing how to read and forbids her from writing in cursive. When she comes home from school upset, Atticus encourages her to think about how Miss Caroline must’ve felt—she had no idea how to deal with the eccentricities of Maycomb children, just as Scout had no idea how to deal with her odd teacher. He suggests that she put herself in others’ shoes to understand how they see things. The highlights of the school year come when Scout and Jem occasionally find treasures stuffed into a knothole of a tree next to the Radleys’ fence. When they find several sticks of gum, Scout and Jem ignore the rumor that everything on the Radley property is poison.

Summer arrives and Dill returns. He, Scout, and Jem grow more daring and sneak onto the Radley property one night to look in the window, but Nathan Radley sees them and thinks they're thieves. As they run away, and Jem's pants get caught in the Radley fence. He leaves them behind and, to cover their tracks, the children show up with the rest of the neighborhood at Nathan Radley’s gate and explain that Jem is without pants because Dill won the pants in a game of strip poker, much to the horror and exasperation of the adults. When Jem goes back to Radleys’ fence to retrieve the pants later that night, he finds them mended and folded. Meanwhile, Scout and Jem continue to find gifts in the knothole until Nathan Radley cements it shut, claiming that the tree is dying. Jem is very hurt, especially when Atticus notes that the tree doesn’t look ill. A few months later, in the dead of winter, the Finch's neighbor Miss Maudie Atkinson 's house catches fire, and as Scout and Finch watch it burn, someone Scout doesn't see puts a blanket around her shoulders. Jem realizes that Boo must have done it. Scout is horrified, but Atticus stifles his laughter.

That year, Atticus is appointed by the court to defend a black man, Tom Robinson , who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell , the daughter of a poor, notoriously vicious white man named Bob Ewell . Racial tensions in Maycomb flare. Scout and Jem become targets of abuse from schoolmates, neighbors, townspeople, and even some family members. Atticus pleads with Scout to not beat people up when they hurl insults at her about it, something that Scout struggles with greatly at Christmas. While at Finch’s Landing with Francis , a boring family member who is a year older, Francis baits Scout to fight him, ensuring that she gets in trouble with her beloved Uncle Jack . Later at home, Scout tells Uncle Jack where he went wrong: he never asked for her side of the story and punished her based on Francis’s incorrect assertion, and she begs him to keep this entire situation a secret from Atticus. On the bright side, Scout and Jem receive air rifles for Christmas, though Atticus refuses to teach them how to shoot. His only advice is that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird . Later in the winter, as Scout and Jem take out their new air rifles to hunt for rabbits, they discover a beloved Maycomb dog named Tim Johnson behaving strangely. Calpurnia recognizes that the dog has rabies, alerts the neighbors, and calls Atticus and the sheriff, Heck Tate . Rather than shoot the dog himself, Mr. Tate makes Atticus do it, surprising the children—they had no idea Atticus even knew how to shoot a gun, but Miss Maudie says he used to be the best shot in the county.

In the spring, Scout and Jem begin going further down the road to meet Atticus after work, which takes them past the house of Mrs. Dubose , a horrendous woman. Jem is able to ignore her abuse for a while, until one day when she hurls slurs and insults at him about Atticus defending Tom Robinson. Jem retaliates by cutting the tops off of her beloved camellia bushes. To make up for this, Mrs. Dubose asks Jem to read to her every day after school for a month, and Atticus insists he has to follow through. Mrs. Dubose is thoroughly nasty the entire time and frightens both Jem and Scout, as she has fits of some sort. Atticus forces Jem to read for an extra week and a month after he finishes, Mrs. Dubose dies. Atticus explains that Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict and used Jem’s daily reading to break herself of her addiction before she died—she wanted to die free. Atticus admits that he made Jem read because he wanted Jem to see that courage isn’t a man with a gun—it’s doing something you know is right, even if you know you’ll fail.

Calpurnia takes the children to attend her black church one Sunday when Atticus is gone and they are, for the most part, warmly received. Scout in particular is shocked to discover that Calpurnia lives a double life, as she speaks one way in the Finch home and another way among her black peers. When they return home, Aunt Alexandra , Atticus’s sister, is there to stay with them for “a while”—which in Maycomb, could mean any length of time—to provide a “feminine influence” for Scout. Scout is skeptical and takes major offense to Aunt Alexandra, especially when she forbids Scout from visiting Calpurnia’s home. Aunt Alexandra's social views are, in general, more conservative than Atticus's. She treats Calpurnia more like a servant than a family member and tries to impress upon the children that the Finches are a “Fine Family” because they’ve been on the same land for generations. Jem notes that, per this logic, the Ewell family is also made up of “Fine Folks.” On the day that Aunt Alexandra forbids Scout from visiting Calpurnia, Scout discovers Dill hiding under her bed after running away from his mother and her new husband. Jem breaks their code by telling Atticus, though Dill’s mother and Miss Rachel allow Dill to stay in Maycomb. That night, Dill admits that he was lonely and suggests that Boo Radley must also be lonely—but Boo hasn’t run away because, possibly, he has nowhere to go.

The weekend before Tom Robinson’s trial, Scout, Jem, and Dill observe tensions in Maycomb rising. Groups of men congregate on the Finches’ lawn, something that, in Scout’s experience, only happens when someone dies or when people want to discuss politics. The day before the trial, a mob surrounds the jail where Tom is being held. Scout, Jem, and Dill sneak out of the house to figure out where Atticus went and join Atticus at the courthouse, who anticipated a mob attack on Tom. Scout doesn't realize what's going on and is scared and uncomfortable when she finds herself in the middle of a group of men she doesn’t know, especially when she realizes that Atticus is scared. She recognizes a man named Mr. Cunningham in the crowd and asks him about his son, Walter , who is Scout's classmate. The man, shamed, disperses the mob. The next morning, this event transforms into a wild story of bravery that delights Dill and annoys Aunt Alexandra.

At the trial, Atticus presents a powerful defense of Tom and makes it clear that both Mayella and Mr. Ewell are lying, since Tom doesn’t have the use of his left arm and couldn’t have choked and beaten a woman, and Mayella’s injuries indicate that whoever beat her was left-handed. Rather, Atticus suggests that Mr. Ewell, who is left-handed, beat Mayella himself when he caught Mayella touching Tom. Tom saw running as his only option, even if it made him look guilty. Scout, Jem, and Dill sneak into the trial and watch the proceedings from the balcony, where the black people are forced to sit. While the prosecuting lawyer, Mr. Gilmer , questions Tom, Dill has to leave. He’s extremely upset by the racist way that Mr. Gilmer spoke to Tom. Outside, they meet Mr. Raymond , a white man who chooses to live with black people. He notes that Dill can only experience this kind of a reaction because he’s a child, whereas adults learn to ignore their innate sense of right and wrong. Jem is sure Atticus will win the case, but the all-white jury convicts Tom as guilty of rape. Jem is particularly devastated by the verdict, and his faith in justice is even further shaken when Tom tries to escape from prison and is shot and killed.

Even though Robinson was convicted, Ewell is furious that Atticus made him look like a fool in court. He harasses Helen Robinson , Tom’s window, and even tries to break into Judge Taylor ’s house. Atticus isn’t concerned, however—he believes that Mr. Ewell got everything out of his system when he spit in Atticus’s face the week after the trial. However, as Jem and Scout walk home alone from a Halloween pageant one night, Mr. Ewell attacks them. Scout can’t see much of what happens, but hears Jem’s arm break before someone rushes in to help. In the scuffle, Mr. Ewell is stabbed to death. The man who saved Jem and Scout carries Jem home, and once inside, Scout realizes that the man is Boo Radley. Mr. Tate decides to keep Boo's involvement in Mr. Ewell's death quiet, which Scout understands—she suggests to Atticus that punishing him would be like killing a mockingbird. Scout leads Boo to say goodnight to Jem, who’s unconscious, and then walks Boo home. As Scout stands on the Radley porch, she sees the world as Boo must see it and looks back on the experiences of her last few summers. She begins to understand that Boo truly was their neighbor and cared about “his children,” Scout, Jem, and Dill. When she gets home, Scout falls asleep as Atticus reads to her at Jem's bedside.

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‘Shogun’ Episode 7 Recap: Death Wish

As the walls close in around Lord Toranaga, his vassals and family look for ways out.

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By Sean T. Collins

Season 1, Episode 7: ‘A Stick of Time’

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Few cinematic genres have had as fruitful a conversation with one another as the samurai film and the western, so it’s only fitting to use an epigraph from “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” to sum up the central conflict in this week’s episode.

It begins in full “print the legend mode,” as the director Takeshi Fukunaga brings us a dreamlike flashback depicting the aftermath of Lord Toranaga’s first victory in battle, achieved before he’d have been bar mitzvah’d. The rogue warrior whose forces he defeats calls for the young Toranaga himself to serve as his second in the ritual of seppuku. An overhead shot shows us the lad preparing to strike the deathblow from a point of view that feels a million miles away, less a bird’s-eye view than a god’s.

But looks can be deceiving. Ask Saeki (Eita Okuno), Toranaga’s estranged half brother, upon whose support the lord of Edo is counting if his fight against Lady Ochiba and the Regents is to be successful. He’s happy to tell Toranaga’s adoring son, Nagakado, that his pops severed the head of the rebel with a single stroke at the tender age of 12. No such thing occurred — Toranaga hacked away nine times like a miniature ax murderer before finally decapitating the man.

But Saeki isn’t doing this to flatter his older brother. He’s doing it to taunt him. He knows Toranaga’s sense of honor will make hearing exaggerated accounts of his exploits uncomfortable. And he knows that by elevating Nagakado’s image of his father, he can send it crashing back down all the more easily. So he tosses in the tale of how young Toranaga soiled himself when he was sent away as a hostage. That’s not the kind of story that makes it into the legendarium.

It’s also not the kind of story you tell if you plan to ally yourself with the boy who fouled his breeches. Indeed, despite initially giving every appearance to the contrary, Saeki has no intention of taking up his older brother’s cause. He announces that he has accepted Lord Ishido’s offer of membership on the Council of Regents, and has been dispatched to summon Toranaga to his impeachment and execution. It takes everything the lord has left in him to prevent his Nagakado from blindly accepting Ishido’s order to commit seppuku over the cannon attack he ordered in Episode 4.

The Toranaga of decades past wasn’t fit to deliver the coup de grâce to the rebel lord, and the Toranaga of today refuses to do the same to his country. He could defend himself, issue the order for Crimson Sky, make war on Osaka, declare himself shogun — but he won’t. “No one has the right to tear the realm apart,” he tells his assembled vassals as he agrees to surrender to the Council.

There’s just one problem with Toranaga’s pacifism: It’s not just his own execution to which he’s marching. His household, family and many of his vassals will be expected to follow him in death. “Behold the great warlord,” Blackthorne sneers when he understands what’s happening. “Brilliant master of trickery, who tricked his own loyal vassals into a noiseless smothering.” He turns to those lords and warriors and addresses them in their own language, “You’re all dead.” (He spares a parting expletive for the Crimson Sky plan.)

Blackthorne isn’t the only person sworn to Toranaga’s service who’d prefer not to go gently into that good night. Elsewhere in the episode, Yabushige makes a failed attempt to broker a separate peace; Ishido sends his emissary’s severed head back in a box.

But one character take matters even more directly into his own hands. Acting in concert with the courtesan Kiku, Nagakado leads a small band of assassins into the teahouse where Saeki is enjoying Kiku’s services. But the fight that ensues ends in disaster when Nagakado slips and falls before his own attempt to chop off an enemy’s head, braining himself on a rock in the teahouse’s garden. Even Saeki, who’d betrayed Nagakado’s father and was seconds away from dying by the youth’s sword, feels the sting of the loss. “Where is the beauty in this?” he says, staring down at the corpse.

Perhaps he might ask Buntaro and Mariko. This unhappy couple is morbid in the extreme. Buntaro wants nothing more than to kill Blackthorne for warming his wife’s icy heart in a way he never could. Buntaro came dangerously close to taking out Blackthorne when he interrupted a friendly sparring session between the Anjin and Lord Yabushige, but opted to submit the issue to Toranaga later as a formal request.

(For his part, Yabushige remains the show’s wild card, as apt to ostentatiously bathe in the presence of Saeki’s soldiers as he is to boil one of Blackthorne’s men alive. You never know with this guy!)

Even as her husband aims to punish her lover, Mariko desires above all to kill herself, finally following the rest of her family. Like Buntaro, she puts this request directly before her liege lord.

Toranaga denies them both, going so far as to slap the ceremonial blade from Mariko’s hand. It’s enough to make you wonder if Kiku’s madame, Gin (Yuko Miyamoto), is right when she notes that it’s out of character for a seasoned warlord like Toranaga to leave his forces so vulnerable to those of his brother. If he truly planned to meekly submit to his own death, why would he be so forcefully averse to Mariko’s?

Maybe there’s more to the future than meets the eye. That’s certainly Gin’s belief. After Mariko brokers a brief meeting between the madame and Lord Toranaga in exchange for Kiku’s services with Saeki, Gin uses her time to ask for the construction of a special red-light district in Toranaga’s burgeoning city, Edo. When he protests that he has no future to offer her, she doesn’t buy it. Surely the great Toranaga has one last legend in him.

An earlier version of the article misidentified the name of the courtesan character. She is called Kiku, not Fuji.

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