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Where did Atticus take the light and extension cord in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Atticus brings the light to the courthouse jail so that he can protect Tom Robinson. 


Atticus learns that Tom Robinson, his client, is in danger.  A group of white men want to prevent the trial and lynch Robinson. He is warned by a small group of men that appear at his house.  He refuses to back down.  Atticus knows that the Cunninghams will target his client, so he plans to sit up all night with...

Atticus brings the light to the courthouse jail so that he can protect Tom Robinson. 


Atticus learns that Tom Robinson, his client, is in danger.  A group of white men want to prevent the trial and lynch Robinson. He is warned by a small group of men that appear at his house.  He refuses to back down.  Atticus knows that the Cunninghams will target his client, so he plans to sit up all night with Jim if that’s what it takes to protect him. 


Atticus tells the men that he will make sure his client gets his fair shake at the law. 



“Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he’s not going till the truth’s told.”


Atticus’s voice was even. “And you know what the truth is.” (Ch. 15) 



Then the children see Atticus come out with “a long electrical extension cord” with “a light bulb on the end” and he tells them he is going out for a while.  The children go out after him, and when he is not at his office they find him in front of the jail. 



A long extension cord ran between the bars of a second-floor window and down the side of the building. In the light from its bare bulb, Atticus was sitting propped against the front door. He was sitting in one of his office chairs, and he was reading, oblivious of the nightbugs dancing over his head. (Ch. 15) 



When the Cunninghams come, Atticus stands his ground.  They tell him that they sent Sherriff Tate off on a “snipe hunt” and he can’t protect Atticus.  Atticus refuses to back down.  He knows that this is just a mob of drunk men.  Scout, ironically, is the one who gets them to disperse.  She strikes up a friendly conversation with Walter Cunningham’s father, and the men come to their senses.

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