What are the tone and mood of Chapter 15 in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The literary terms mood and tone are easy to confuse. Mood is defined as the "feelings or vibes" a literary piece evokes in a reader due to its words and other literary devices (Literary Devices, "Mood"). Mood can also be defined as the "atmosphere of a literary piece" ("Mood"). The term tone is defined as the writer's attitude toward the subject matter of the piece (Literary Devices, "Tone"). In Chapter 15 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch faces a mob, but the tense situation is successfully diffused. As the plot of the chapter progresses, both the mood Lee establishes and her tone shift from negative to positive.

Lee opens the chapter by establishing a very threatening mood. The reader feels as threatened by the appearance of the mobs as the children do and, eventually, as Atticus confesses to do. Though Atticus claims the group of men in the Finch's front lawn led by Sheriff Heck Tate are friends of the Finch's, the reader can't help but notice that they challenge Atticus's decision to defend Tom Robinson and angrily move towards him the moment he says, "Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told ... And you know what the truth is." The fact that they move towards Atticus when he says this creates tension and helps establish the threatening mood of the chapter. The mood becomes even more threatening when the mob led by Walter Cunningham Sr. appears before Atticus in front of the jail.

However, despite the earlier threatening mood, the mood shifts to one of relief the moment Cunningham kneels before Scout, takes her by "both shoulders," and says, "I'll tell [my son] you said hey, little lady," then breaks up the crowd, telling them to go home. The reader further senses the mood of relief the moment Atticus is described as turning away, "leaning against [the jail] with his face to the wall," and wiping his face with his handkerchief.

The events in the chapter also clearly portray the author's disapproving tone. Like Atticus, it is clear through the themes author Lee establishes throughout the book that Lee disapproves of racial prejudices and of the anger that such prejudices incite. Hence, in describing the actions of both Sheriff Tate's mob and Walter Cunningham's mob, Lee is portraying her tone of disapproval.

Yet, just like the mood takes a positive turn in the chapter, so does her tone. Through comments the character Atticus makes throughout the book, Lee shows that all people have two sides to their nature: a good side and an evil side. Plus, when nurtured, the good side shines through. Hence, Lee uses Scout's unexpected ability to pacify Walter Cunningham by treating him like a human being and showing him kindness to show that the good nature of even one who feels as angry as Cunningham can be nurtured. Therefore, Lee uses the pacification of Cunningham to transition her tone from one of disapproval to one of acceptance to show that, like Atticus, Lee accepts both the good and the bad of all human beings.

How does the description of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird set the mood and tone?

Maycomb, Alabama is described as being a "slow town," where the majority of the inhabitants are old and there are no significant attractions. It is portrayed as a small country town, and the community is predominately made up of conservative, traditional Southern citizens, who are prejudiced against African Americans. In chapter 1, Scout describes her hometown by saying:

People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County (Lee 5).

Scout's description is significant because like the slow-moving town, the citizens also cling to their backward, traditionalist ways. Throughout the novel, Scout's father challenges the racist culture of Maycomb by defending a black man in front of a prejudiced jury. As Scout and Jem mature, they begin to notice the overt prejudice throughout their community and witness racial injustice firsthand. Atticus, a proponent of equal rights, and a few other citizens wish to alter the prejudiced perception throughout Maycomb's community. The jury members who wrongly convict Tom Robinson and the racist citizens who criticize Atticus represent the traditionalist culture of Maycomb. Despite Atticus's loss, Miss Maudie tells Jem:

Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. And I thought to myself, well, we’re making a step—it’s just a babystep, but it’s a step (Lee 220).

Even though Maycomb and its citizens are described as being slow, the reader gets a sense that the culture is gradually moving towards equality and is slowly changing for the better.