Sheriff Heck Tate

TL;DR: Sheriff of Maycomb County. Hands Atticus the rifle to shoot the rabid dog in Chapter 10. Sits beside him at the jailhouse the night of the lynch mob. Testifies for the State at the trial — and is also the man who, on the Finch porch in Chapter 30, calmly decides that "Bob Ewell fell on his knife" and refuses to be argued out of it.

Spoiler level: medium. Discusses the porch decision in Chapter 30, which is the book's quietest and most disputed moment.

Snapshot

Heck Tate is the lawman of Maycomb — a thin, weathered, plain-spoken man in high-laced boots and a lumber jacket whose belt is studded with a row of rifle bullets. He has known Atticus all his adult life and defers to him, on balance, in most things — until Chapter 30, when the deference reverses.

Role in the story

Heck appears in five chapters and is decisive in four of them. He is the lawman who hands Atticus the rifle on the empty street in Chapter 10. He is part of the Saturday-night delegation that warns Atticus about the Old Sarum bunch in Chapter 15. He is the State's first witness in the trial — the one whose testimony Atticus uses to plant the left-handed-bruising detail. He is summoned to the Finch porch after the Halloween attack in Chapter 28 and makes the decision in Chapter 30 that closes the case.

Personality in plain English

Steady, unflashy, modest. Knows what he is good at (sheriffing) and what he is not (long-distance shooting — see Chapter 10, where he hands the rifle to Atticus). Listens. Trusts Atticus implicitly until the porch scene in Chapter 30, where he calmly and immovably overrules him for the first time in the book. His authority in that scene is the authority of a man who has thought carefully about what justice requires when the law would require something worse.

What he wants

Maycomb safe. The Halloween-night situation closed cleanly. Boo Radley left alone. He says all of this in plain words to Atticus on the porch — and means every one of them.

What he fears

The town learning what happened on the road home from the pageant. Boo's name being dragged into a coroner's inquest. The "shy ways" of a man who has saved two children and who has earned the right not to be dragged into the limelight.

Key relationships

• Atticus Finch — his near-equal and the man he defers to until he doesn't. Their porch argument in Chapter 30 is the book's quietest test of their friendship.
• Bob Ewell — whom Heck testifies about coldly in Chapter 17 and whose body he removes from a field in Chapter 28.
• Boo Radley — whom he protects from the consequence of what he has done.
• Scout — whose testimony on the porch he listens to carefully, then quietly decides what to do with.

Visual identity

Tall and lean. A long lean rectangular face, jaw set. Mid-height forehead with the hairline receding at the temples. Medium-thick straight brown brows; a long nose with a slight bump at the bridge from an old break; flat-planed cheekbones with slightly hollow cheeks. Thin lips set in a slight habitual downturn. Medium-set hazel eyes with crow's-feet from sun. Weathered red-brown sunburn-tan, especially across the bridge of the nose and the back of the neck. Daily uniform: high-laced brown leather boots reaching mid-calf, dark breeches/riding pants tucked into them, a brown lumber jacket over a chambray work shirt, a wide leather belt with a row of rifle bullets sticking up out of it (Lee's specific detail), a small sheriff's star pinned to the lumber jacket, a wide-brim brown felt hat held in one hand or jammed on his head.

Aliases

The following names and references in the book all point to this character. Use any of these as link anchors back to this page.

• Heck Tate (canonical — the most common form)
• Sheriff Tate
• Mr. Tate
• Heck

Discussion questions

• In Chapter 10, Heck hands Atticus the rifle and calls him "the deadest shot in Maycomb County." In Chapter 30, he overrides Atticus for the first time in the book. What has changed between those two moments?
• "Bob Ewell fell on his knife." Heck says it three times in Chapter 30 — flat, immovable. Is he telling the truth, lying for a good reason, or refusing to make the distinction matter?
• Atticus initially wants the truth told to a coroner's jury. He gives in to Heck. Is that capitulation a failure of Atticus's stated principles, or an example of what Atticus's stated principles look like when they are tested?
• Heck testifies for the State in Chapter 17. The case he helps to build is the case Atticus is trying to dismantle. What does the book want us to do with the fact that the sheriff and the defense attorney are quietly aligned in private and necessarily opposed in court?
• Heck Tate is a minor character by line count but a major character by moral weight. Why does Lee give the book's most consequential decision to him instead of to Atticus?