s her regular Missionary Circle Meet at the house. Scout has been asked to join them for refreshments. Stephanie Crawford, in her usual cattiness, teases Scout about being present in the courtroom. They all discuss Toms trial and are general about their attitudes towards the blacks. Later, Atticus enters, asking to borrow Calpurnia for a while. It turns out that Tom is dead, he had been shot as he had been trying to break away from the jail. Atticus needs Calpurnia to break the news to Toms wife and to tend to her. Even Aunt Alexandra is shaken on hearing this and is deeply caring towards her brother. The news of Toms death is shattering. Atticus is sad since he had been quite sure that they would have won the case in the higher court. But it seems as if Tom had grown tired of the entire thing, waiting for white men to do something for him, and so he himself took the chance to escape. Pages 238 247Things have eventually went normal in Maycomb County. Jem and Scout spend their time lazing around. They went with Atticus and traveled with him and Calpurnia to Toms house. Helen, his wife, collapses when she find out.The news of Toms death lasts for two days, with a few articles about it in the newspapers. Ewells name still causes an badfeeling in Scout but Jem placates her, saying that "Mr. Ewell was more hot gas than anything." Helens silent reaction over her husbands death may seem not natural, but it is as if she always knew about the realityof her husbands death. His death sentence had already been written the moment Mayella Ewell had opened her mouth to scream. Society had still not improved so much that a black would be given precedence over a white. Both Tom and Helen knew this the whole time.Scout is now in the third grade and the Radley house has stopped scaring her. She remembers regretfully how she and Jem used to torment Bob Radley and yet he would leave them gifts in the knothole. At school, in the Current Events class, w...
