Summary Chapter 23

• Atticus does not seem worried about Bob Ewell‘s threats, explaining to his children that Ewell is seeking out revenge through those threats
• Atticus believes that Ewell will not cause any more trouble
• while Tom‘s case is being anaylized in the court system, he has been sent to another prison
• Scout learns that Tom will be electrocuted because rape is a capital offense, even though Atticus thinks that Tom has a good chance of being pardoned
• when Jem and Atticus have a discussion about whether it is just to execute men for rape, Atticus also tells Jem that in court, the word of a white man weighs much more than the one of a black man
• yet, Atticus seems to be a little hopeful since the jury is discussing the case for a long time and since one of the Cunninghams wanted to acquit Tom
• those news make Scout conciliative towards the Cunninghams and she wants to invite Walter for dinner one night, but Aunt Alexandra intervenes and announces that the Finches won‘t be seen with trash
• upon hearing that, Scout gets furious and she is taken to Jem‘s bedroom by Jem where he shows her his growing chest hair and where he tells her that he wanted to try out for the football team
• this results in a discussion about class systems (their aunt disliking the Cunninghams, who look down on the poor Ewells, who in turn despise black people)
• the children do not understand why someone would spent their valuable lifetime to hate someone else, and Jem figures that the reason why Boo Radley won‘t leave his house is because he does not want to leave it

Summary Chapter 24

• when Aunt Alexandra holds a tea party with her missionary circle at the Finchs‘ house, Scout is invited to join them
• they talk about how their black servants suddenly started to behave badly - exactly ever since the trial of Tom Robinson
• Miss Maudie puts a stop to the other ladies‘ gossip
• Atticus tells Alexandra, Scout, Miss Maudie and Calpurnia that Tom has tried to escape and that he has been shot several times
• he leaves with Calpurnia in order to tell Tom‘s family that he has died
• Alexandra and Miss Maudie get back to the missionary circle, pretending as if nothing happened

Summary Chapter 25

• sitting on the front porch one day in September, Scout wants to smash a roly-poly bug with her hand, yet she is stopped from doing so by Jem
• placing the bug somewhere in the yard, she asks Jem why he stopped her from smashing the bug and Jem answers that the bug didn‘t do anything to her
• Scout thinks that Jem is more and more behaving like a girl - in contrast to her
• Scout remembers Dill telling her that Jem saw Helen Robinson collapse at her house shortly before Atticus told her the news about her husband‘s death
• Maycomb society agress upon the fact that it is just typical that a black man would try to escape
• Mr. Underwood reacts to that by writing a long article stating that the death of Tom Robinson is equal to the murder of an innocent man
• Bob Ewell is overheard claiming that Tom‘s death makes one down and two more to go
• Dill leaves when summer ends

Function

• Atticus‘ attempt to make the children understand how Bob Ewell must feel
  
  • Atticus advises Jem to try to imagine him being in Bob‘s situation
  • however, Atticus does not fully grasp the depth of Bob‘s furiousness, and hence, his analysis is bound to fail
  • he is put in contrast with Aunt Alexandra, who claims that someone like Bob will go to great lenghts to get revenge, proving her correct in the end; thus, her understanding of Maycomb society is rather reliable
• Jem and Scout‘s transgression to adult world
  
  • Jem‘s chest hair and his contemplating about football
  • their discussion about the judicial system and its unfairness
  • the complexity of adult world is shown by the fact that the white, rather uneducated Cunningham wants to acquit Tom
  • by spending more time with Aunt Alexandra, Scout also steps closer to the adult world
  • adulthood and its understanding of the social hierarchy mixes with their childish worldviews when both can‘t understand why Aunt Alexandra won‘t let them interfere with Walter Cunningham
  • Scout realizes the hypocrisy of Maycomb society at the tea party: one lady almost starts to cry over the fate of African children while at the same time condemning "sulky dark[ies]"
  • Jem seems to embrace the transgression into adulthood whereas Scout can be considered to have a reluctant opinion towards that; this can be seen by the fact that Jem is proud of his chest hair, but Scout seems somewhat off in the dress at the tea party
• Mr. Underwood refers to Tom Robinson‘s death as "the senseless slaughter of songbirds" which is also a hint at Tom‘s innocence
• the significance of the roly-poly bug
  
  • shows the difference in the maturity level of Jem and Scout
  • Jem already understands the vulnerability of the oppressed whereas Scout thinks of that as an action without any meaning or significance