Summary Chapter 28

• on their way to school, Jem and Scout are frightened by Cecil Jacobs, who jumps out of a bush
• when the pageant starts, the children go backstage, yet Scout misses her entrance because she has fallen asleep
• at the end, she runs onto the stage and the audience laughs whereas the woman responsible of the pageant is upset with Scout because she thinks that she ruined it
• Scout is ashamed and she wants to wait backstage until everyone has gone before going home
• walking back home, Jem hears noises coming from behind, believing it must be Cecil
• calling out for Cecil, no one answers
• Jem notices someone running after them and screams for Scout to run, who loses her balance due to her costume and falls
• Scout feels something tearing at the wires from her costume and hears struggling
• Jem breaks free and helps Scout down the road, but he is pulled back by someone
• when Jem screams, Scout runs toward him and is grabbed and squeezed
• however, their assailant is pulled away and the fighting noises stop
• Scout finds a drunk man on the floor when searching for Jem and runs back home, seeing that a man carries Jem
• at home, Heck Tate and Dr. Reynolds are called to the scene
• Scout is being told that Jem is just unconscious and Dr. Reynolds confirms that Jem has a broken arm and a bump on his head
• entering Jem‘s room, Scout sees the man who carried Jem to their house but does not know him
• Heck Tate informs Atticus that he found Bob Ewell dead with a knife stuck under his ribs

Summary Chapter 29

• Heck Tate shows Scout the costume that has some tearings in it, indicating that a knife tore through it, but that it was stopped by the wire
• Scout recounts the incidents of the evening and looks at the man who carried Jem back home
• he has a thin, pinched face and colorless eyes and Scout realizes that it was Boo Radley who saved her and Jem

Summary Chapter 30

• Scout is sitting on the front porch with Mr. Arthur (Boo‘s real name) and they overhear a discussion between Atticus and Heck Tate
• Heck believes that Bob Ewell‘s death was an accident but Atticus thinks that Jem is responsible for Bob Ewell‘s death and does not want Jem to be protected from possible consequences
• Heck Tate insists on the fact that Bob Ewell fell on his knife, thus proving the innocence of Jem and at the same time hiding the fact that it was Boo who killed Bob Ewell because Heck Tate does not want to bring any more attention to Boo
• Tom Robinson‘s death is now in some twisted manner revenged since the responsible man is dead

Summary Chapter 31

• Scout takes Boo back to his house and when he enters, she knows that she will never see him again and she thinks about how Boo‘s life must be
• she goes back home and Atticus reads a book to her until she falls asleep

Function

• elements of foreshadowing
  
  • the dark night
  • Cecil Jacob trying to scare Jem and Scout
  • the walk back home
• revelation of Bob Ewell‘s character
  
  • reader thinks that Bob Ewell would attack Atticus for his role in the trial of Tom Robinson
  • yet, he would never work up the courage to attack a man of Atticus‘ status in town
  • the children are much more vulnerable and his attack on them shows how loathsome and hateful Bob Ewell is
• final recognition of Boo as a human being and as an innocent mockingbird
  
  • Scout believes that the man who had saved her and Jem is some countryman
  • this points toward the children‘s inability to see Boo as a human being and instead, they treat him more as a mythical creature
  • when Scout actually talks to Boo, she develops her character into a more grown-up version of herself and she sees him as their neighbour and a real person and no longer as a ghostly phantom
  • Heck Tate protects Boo from the public by saying that Bob Ewell fell on his knife
  • Scout claims that exposing Boo to the public would be like shooting a mockingbird - those words mark her second step of her transgression into the adult world
  • for Scout, Boo is proof that goodness exists despite an environment that is infused with evil