The Jail Steps

TL;DR: A delegation of men warns Atticus on Saturday night that the Old Sarum bunch is coming for Tom Robinson. The next night, Atticus carries an electric cord and a light bulb to the jailhouse. The children follow. A mob of farmers arrives. Scout, recognizing one of them, steps into the circle and disarms the moment by asking after his son Walter. From a window across the square, Mr. Underwood watches the whole thing through the barrel of a shotgun.

Spoilers through Chapter 15.

Chapter in one sentence

A small girl in overalls steps into a circle of grown men in front of a jailhouse door, recognizes one of them, and asks after his son.

What happens

A delegation of men comes to the Finch front yard one Saturday night — Sheriff Heck Tate, Mr. Link Deas, and a few others — to warn Atticus that the Old Sarum bunch may try to lynch Tom Robinson, who has just been moved to the Maycomb jail ahead of the trial.

The next evening, Atticus, against his own habit, leaves the house carrying an extension cord and a light bulb. Jem suspects something. He, Scout, and Dill follow him into town. At the jail they find Atticus seated in a small wooden chair pulled up to the cell door, reading by the bulb's yellow pool. Four cars roll up and disgorge strangers — Old Sarum men in workshirts and field hats, smelling of whiskey and stale sweat. Their leader tells Atticus to "step aside."

Scout, recognizing Mr. Walter Cunningham Sr. — Walter's father from Chapter 3 — rushes into the crowd before Jem can stop her. Jem refuses Atticus's order to take the children home. Scout, oblivious to the danger, addresses Mr. Cunningham about his entailment, about his son, insisting Walter is "a fine boy." After a long silence Cunningham squats in the dust, takes her gently by both shoulders, and tells her he will tell his Walter she said hey. He turns. The men drift back to their cars. The mob unravels.

From the cell window, Tom Robinson's voice asks: "They gone?" From a high window across the courthouse square, Mr. Underwood, the Maycomb Tribune editor, calls down: he has been covering Atticus from his second-floor office with a double-barreled shotgun the whole time.

Key moments

• The Saturday-night delegation in the Finch front yard
• Atticus walking to town the following evening carrying an extension cord and a light bulb
• The children sneaking after him through dim streets
• The arrival of the mob in farm cars
• Scout stepping into the circle and disarming Mr. Cunningham
• Tom Robinson's voice from inside the cell: "They gone?"
• Mr. Underwood's reveal: shotgun on a windowsill the whole time

Character shifts

Jem, refusing to leave when Atticus tells him to, goes from "the older brother" to "his father's protector" in a single line. He stands his ground in front of a grown man's order from his own father. Scout, who has just walked into a lynch mob in nightclothes, has somehow done the one thing none of the adults could do — broken the circle from inside it. The pair of them have begun to do things they did not know they could.

Why it matters

This is the second visual centerpiece of Part Two (after the trial chapters). The light bulb on a cord, the small wooden chair, the semicircle of farmer hats around a brick wall — these are the iconic images of the book's argument that civic decency depends on the willingness of ordinary people to put themselves between violence and its target. Atticus has put his own body between the mob and Tom. Mr. Underwood has put his shotgun on a windowsill above. Scout, accidentally, has put herself in the middle of the circle. The chapter argues — without making the argument — that these are the things courage looks like in practice.

Themes to notice

• Real courage as the willingness to stand somewhere quietly that someone else doesn't want you to stand
• The town's fault lines visible from outside: the Old Sarum bunch is not all of Maycomb
• Mr. Underwood as the book's surprise — a man with views about Black townspeople ("he is sure he despised Negroes," Scout will note later) who is also willing to spend a night covering Atticus from a window
• The lights and silhouettes of the chapter — bulb, semicircle, shotgun barrel on a sill — as one of Lee's most carefully composed pictures

Book club questions

• Scout disarms the mob by accident. She is six years old and is talking about her classmate's entailment. The men of the mob recognize themselves through her eyes, and the spell breaks. What is the book saying about how mob psychology is interrupted?
• Atticus walks to the jail with an extension cord and a light bulb. The reader is told only after the fact what he was doing there. Why does Lee construct the chapter as a mystery rather than as a confession?
• Mr. Underwood is revealed at the end of the chapter to have been covering the scene from above with a double-barreled shotgun. He despises Black people in general — and is willing to spend his Saturday night protecting one in this specific case. How does the book want us to hold those two facts?
• Jem refuses to obey Atticus and take the children home. Atticus, who almost never raises his voice, raises it. Then concedes. Why does the book make that the moment Atticus relents?

Visual memory hook

A single Edison bulb on a cord against a brick wall at night. A tall thin man in shirtsleeves in a small wooden chair reading in its yellow pool. Four mud-caked cars idling in the dirt. A circle of denim-coated farmers in hat brims. A small girl in overalls breaking the circle from the inside. A shotgun barrel resting on a high windowsill across the square.

What's next

The morning of the trial. The country rolls into Maycomb. Reverend Sykes takes the children up to the colored balcony.