Chapter 26

With school back in session, Scout and Jem’s routines diverge; Jem starts high school and carries water for the football team. Passing the Radley Place no longer terrifies Scout, but she recalls Boo’s gifts in the knothole and imagines a calm, ordinary meeting with him. Atticus firmly warns Scout not to reignite any Radley adventures, revealing he knew more about their past trespasses than they realized.

Maycomb avoids discussing Tom Robinson with the Finch children, expecting them to behave with forced dignity. Though people re-elect Atticus to the legislature, Scout withdraws from the town’s peculiarities. In class, a Current Events exercise leads Cecil Jacobs to report on Adolf Hitler’s persecution of Jews, prompting Miss Gates to praise American democracy and denounce prejudice.

Scout is unsettled by Miss Gates’s stance because she recalls hearing the teacher leaving the courthouse saying Black people needed to be “taught a lesson.” The contradiction—condemning Hitler’s persecution while tolerating local bigotry—bothers Scout, who seeks clarity from Atticus. Atticus rejects hatred of anyone, even Hitler, but Scout cannot yet articulate the hypocrisy troubling her.

Turning to Jem, Scout raises Miss Gates’s comments. Jem, still raw from the trial’s injustice, erupts and forbids any mention of the courthouse. Distressed, Scout goes to Atticus, who explains that Jem is trying to store the painful events away until time allows him to sort them out, assuring Scout that Jem will return to himself.