Chapters 24-31 include chapter titles created by the student
Chapter 17-
This is the beginning of the trial. Heck Tate tells his account of what happened on November 21st. Then Mr. Ewell gives his account. Since Heck Tate said Mayella’s right eye was bruised Atticus asks Mr. Ewell what hand he writes with. Since he is left handed, it is suggested that Mr. Ewell could have easily held down Mayella and beat her right side with his left hand.
Chapter 18-
In this chapter, Mayella tells the jury what her version of what happened on November 21st. Atticus starts by asking her if she had any friends. Judging from her remark, the answer was “no”, which was very sad. Mayella is then asked to recite what happened on that night. She said she asked Tom Robinson to bust up a chiffarobe but as she was turning around, he grabbed her and took advantage of her. However since Tom’s left arm is crippled and Mayella was beat up on her right side, it wouldn’t make much sense that Tom beat her up.
Chapter 19-
Tom Robinson gives his account of what happened that night. His story is rather surprising. He says that Mayella wanted him to fix a door. When he couldn’t find a door to fix, Mayella jumped and hugged him and told him to kiss her. He tried to gently push her out of the way to leave, but Mr. Ewell had already seen what happened. At then end of the chapter, when Mr. Gilmer starts to speak rather harshly to Tom, Dill begins to cry and him and Scout leave the courtroom.
Chapter 20-
While Scout and Dill leave the courtroom, they run into Mr. Dolphus Raymond. He offers a drink to Dill. Scout, thinking the drink is whiskey, warns Dill not to drink anymore. However, Dill reveals that the drink is actually just Coca-Cola. Puzzled, Scout asks why Mr. Raymond pretends to be drinking alcohol. He explains that since he likes to live with African Americans and that white people don’t like that, he pretends to drink to give them reason for his ways. Although his method could be considered odd, he wants to give people a reason, even if it’s not a real reason, why he does what he does. When Scout and Dill return, they find Atticus summarizing the whole case. At the end of the chapter, Dill finds Calpurnia walking down the middle aisle towards Atticus.
Chapter 21-
Atticus realizes that the children were watching the whole trial, and allows them to hear the verdict after they eat their supper. When the children return, Jem is confident that they have won the case. However, when the jury walks in, their verdict is that Tom Robinson is guilty. The chapter ends as Atticus walks out the door.
Chapter 22-
Jem is heartbroken that they lost the case. The verdict was obviously unfair. Atticus agrees and explains that when there is a white man against a black man, the white man always wins. The African American community left lots of food for the Finches to show their appreciation towards Atticus. At the end of the chapter, Miss Stephanie exclaims that as Atticus walked into town he ran into Bob Ewell, who spat at him, called him names, and threatened to kill him.
Chapter 23-
Atticus doesn’t take Mr. Ewell’s threat seriously. However, Jem and Scout are worried. Atticus tells them to be in Mr. Ewell’s situation for a while. Atticus had ruined his credibility. After that, Jem and Scout feel safer. Atticus also reveals that one of the Cunninghams was on the jury, and they were the hardest to convince to prosecute Tom. After hearing this, Scout wants to invite Walter Cunningham to her house. However, Aunt Alexandra does not permit this. After Aunt Alexandra calls Walter “trash”, Scout bursts into tears as Jem describes how there are different people in this world who look down at other people. Jem finally concludes that the world is filled with so much negativity that Boo Radley stays inside all the time because he wants to stay there, away from the world.
Chapter 24 (A Missionary Circle and a Surprise)-
In this chapter, Scout joins Aunt Alexandra’ missionary circle for refreshments. This was to help Scout act more like a lady. Everything is going fine until Atticus walks and he tells Aunt Alexandra and Calpurnia that Tom’s dead. He died as he tried to escape from the prison and was shot down. This concludes the chapter.
Chapter 25 (Breaking the News)-
After Tom’s death, Atticus drives over with Calpurnia and Jem and Dill (they met the boys on the way) to Helen Robinson’s house. Bringing the news to her is very tough for Atticus and Calpurnia and Helen faints even before hearing the news. Dill tells Scout about this and then the chapter ends.
Chapter 26 [(Almost) Everything’s Back to Normal]-
School starts again and Jem and Scout have now given up the hope of seeing Boo Radley. Scout’s class is studying Adolf Hitler as their current event. Atticus doesn’t like Hitler and Scout brings this point up with Jem. Jem agrees but when Scout asks him if her teacher is still considered nice even though she was talking bad about other people in court, Jem becomes furious for mentioning the court.
Chapter 27 (Three Changes Served With Ham)
Three major events occur in Maycomb: First, Mr. Ewell loses his job. Second, Mr. Ewell tries to rob Judge Taylor’s house. Third: Mr. Link Deas, Tom Robinson’s employer, employs Helen Robinson even though he doesn’t really need her. Also, for Halloween, Jem and Scout’s school is having a pageant in which Scout is playing a ham. The chapter ends with “Thus began our longest journey together” (Lee 340).
Chapter 28 (Boo!)
After the pageant, Jem and Scout have to walk home in the pitch-black darkness. As they’re walking, they hear footsteps behind them. They assume it is Cecil Jacobs since he had already scared them once before. However, as they continue, the footsteps start running towards them and that person grabs Scout and Jem. Eventually, Jem is knocked unconscious and Scout sees a man carrying Jem towards their house. As she reaches home, Atticus calls Dr. Reynolds. Mr. Heck Tate also arrives and the chapter ends when he tells them that Bob Ewell is dead.
Chapter 29 (Boo Radley)-
Scout repeats what happened as her and Jem were coming home. She goes through all the details about how the man that had carried Jem towards the house had also saved her. When asked who the man was, Scout realizes that it was Boo Radley.
Chapter 30 (The Final Dispute)
Heck Tate and Atticus now start discussing how Bob died. Atticus though Jem stabbed him as a self-defense method but Heck says Bob “fell” on his knife. After many arguments, Atticus realizes that Boo stabbed Bob, but to draw attention away from Boo, they conclude that Bob fell on his knife.
Chapter 31 (The Last Farewell)-
Scout invites Boo to see Jem one last time. When they leave the house, Scout makes Boo put his arm in her arm as if to seem that Boo was escorting Scout down the road like any other gentleman. As Boo goes inside his house and is never seen again, Scout sees everything that Boo did over the last two years. As Scout runs home, she finds Atticus in Jem’s room, reading. As Atticus reads to her, she falls asleep. When she wakes up again, Atticus is taking her to her room where Scout realizes that most people are nice when you finally see them.