After Tom Robinson is convicted of rape and then killed in prison, Maycomb starts to “settle down.” As chapter 27 opens, Scout first reflects that “two small things out of the ordinary” happen, and then amends that to three things. They may seem small to her because they were only indirectly connected to the Finches. The first thing is that Bob Ewell was hired and then fired from a job with the Works Project Administration (WPA). The second is that Judge Taylor interrupts a mysterious visitor who had opened the back screen door of his home. The third is that Ewell is harassing Helen Robinson on her way to work until her employer forces him to stop. These events provide foreshadowing of Ewell’s attack in chapter 28.

The WPA was the federally funded New Deal jobs program. Ewell worked only a few days, and Scout insists that he was fired “for laziness.” Ewell tells others that Atticus had intervened and caused him to be fired, but nobody believes this.

Judge Taylor is known to stay home alone on Sunday night while his wife is at church. One night while reading he hears a noise at the back door, which he assumed is his dog scratching to be let in. He realizes that someone has opened the screen door and sees a shadowy figure in the yard. People assume that this person was Ewell, who harbors a grudge against the judge for chastising him during the trial.

After Tom is killed, his former employer, Link Deas, hires Tom’s widow, Helen, as a cook in his home. Walking to his house requires Helen to pass the Ewell’s house, from which they “chunk” or throw things at her. When Deas realizes she is taking an alternate route to avoid passing that way, he intervenes on her behalf and insists that Ewell desist.