The Court Case in Part 1

The Court Case in To Kill A Mockingbird is the basis of the book, and most of the action about it happens in part two. However there are lots of hints about it in part one of the book:


Why does Atticus take the case?

• "If I didn't, I couldn't hold up my head in town"- Atticus is a good person and doesn't discriminate  This means that if he didn't take the court case then he would be going against his own personal beliefs and he would be a hypocrite.
• "I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't help that man" -Atticus has faith and a conscience. If he didn't take the case then he would feel guilty and embarassed
• Courage is "when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what"- Atticus is brave and this helps with the fact that he knows that he has got to take the case
• "I think we'll have a reasonable chance on appeal"- Atticus has determination and won't give up
• "He's a member of Calpurnia's church"- Atticus has a personal connection with Tom Robinson and he treats Calpurnia well, so he feels he ought to do the same to Tom.

What hints are there that the case is going to be hard?

• "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for"-The case will be hard because most of Maycomb are prejudiced and discriminate against black people, including Tom Robinson and look down on Atticus for trying to help him
• "Scout's got to keep her head and learn soon with what's in store for her these next few months" - This implies that there is going to be a lot of talk about the Scout, a lot of which will insult Scout and make her angry.
• "When summer comes you'll have to keep your head about far worse things"- This implies that the insults is only going to get worse