CHAPTER 20 NOTES

  • Scout and Dill meet Dolphus Raymond outside, he offers Dill a drink. What is in the sack?
  • Dolphus is a known drunk. Why does he tell the children that he pretends to be drunk?
  • He says he is helping Maycomb, because then they can say about him, “He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives like he does.” (How does he live?)
  • Dolphus says he lets the kids in on his “secret” because they are children and can understand it, and that he had heard Dill talking and knew he hadn’t yet fallen victim to Maycomb’s “usual disease.”
  • Scout and Dill return inside the court room where Atticus is giving his closing remarks.
  • When they get back inside, Atticus was already speaking and Jem thinks they are going to win? Why?
  • When Atticus takes off his coat, unbuttons his vest, unbuttons his collar and loosens his tie, the kids are startled, but the image depicts a man about to start a “fight”- what is he fighting?
  • In his closing arguments, Atticus makes several clear points- this case, as simple as black and white, should not have come to court.
  • There is no medical evidence that Tom raped Mayella.
  • That someone in the courtroom IS guilty. Who?
  • Atticus says that Mayella is guilty of breaking a “time honored code… a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with.” What was the code?
  • Atticus says Mayella is a victim of poverty, but she is white. What is he trying to prove?
  • Atticus says Mayella tempted Tom and when her father saw it, that the circumstantial evidence suggests he beat her with his left hand, which Tom cannot do.
  • He says that Mayella and Bob Ewell came to court under the assumption that their testimony would not be doubted. Why not?
  • Atticus then talks about how the government says “all men are created equal,” and that IN a court room, that should be true, even though we understand that this statement does not mean that all men are the same. It means that in court, everyone should be treated by the evidence presented and NOT the color of his skin.
  • Atticus tells the jury that they should “review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family.
  • Then he says something under his breath- Jem thinks Atticus says, “In the name of God, believe him.”
  • Who appears in court at the end of the chapter?