Chapter 20 — Summary

Plot Summary

Chapter 20 of To Kill a Mockingbird begins outside the Maycomb County courthouse, where Scout and Dill have stepped out after Dill became physically ill during Mr. Gilmer's harsh cross-examination of Tom Robinson. On the courthouse lawn, they encounter Mr. Dolphus Raymond, one of Maycomb's most talked-about residents. Raymond is a wealthy white man who lives with a Black woman and has several mixed-race children, a domestic arrangement that horrifies the town's white population.

When Raymond offers Dill a sip from his paper sack to calm the boy's stomach, Scout braces herself—the whole town knows Dolphus Raymond drinks whiskey from a paper bag. But Dill's eyes go wide: the sack contains a bottle of Coca-Cola. Raymond's notorious alcoholism is a complete fabrication. He explains that pretending to drink gives the people of Maycomb a comfortable explanation for his unconventional life. They can blame whiskey rather than confront the possibility that a white man of means might genuinely prefer to live among Black people. It is easier, Raymond says, to give folks a reason they can latch onto than to force them to face something they cannot comprehend.

Raymond tells Scout and Dill that he trusts children with the truth because they have not yet learned to suppress their instinctive moral reactions. Dill's nausea at the way Tom Robinson was treated in court, Raymond says, is the correct human response—it is the adults who have gone wrong by learning to tolerate cruelty.

Atticus's Closing Argument

Returning to the courtroom, Scout and Dill arrive just as Atticus begins his closing statement. In a gesture that shocks his children, Atticus removes his coat, unbuttons his vest, and loosens his tie—something Jem and Scout have never seen him do in public. He speaks without notes, addressing the jury in a conversational tone as though they were neighbors on a street corner.

Atticus builds his case methodically. He reminds the jury that no doctor was ever called to examine Mayella, and no medical evidence of the alleged crime exists. The prosecution's case rests solely on two witnesses whose testimonies contradict each other. He reviews the physical evidence: Mayella's bruises were concentrated on the right side of her face, indicating a left-handed attacker. Tom Robinson's left arm hangs useless at his side, destroyed in a childhood cotton gin accident. Bob Ewell, however, is left-handed.

Atticus then addresses what he calls the real crux of the case. Mayella Ewell violated a deeply entrenched social code by pursuing a Black man. When her father witnessed her advance toward Tom, Bob Ewell beat his own daughter and then conspired with her to shift the blame onto Tom Robinson. Atticus expresses sympathy for Mayella as a victim of poverty and an abusive father, but argues that her circumstances do not give her the right to destroy an innocent man's life.

In his final appeal, Atticus invokes the foundational American principle that all men are created equal. He acknowledges this is not literally true in everyday life—people differ in ability, opportunity, and intelligence—but insists there is one institution where this principle must hold: the courts. He asks the jury, in the name of God, to do their duty and believe Tom Robinson. As Atticus finishes speaking, Calpurnia appears at the courtroom gate with a message—the Finch children have been missing since noon.