To Kill A Mockingbird Notes
To Kill A Mockingbird - Chapters 18-19
Mayella testifies next, a reasonably clean nineteen-year- old girl who is obviously terrified. She says that she called Tom Robinson inside the fence that evening and offered him a nickel to break up a dresser for her, and that once he got inside the house he grabbed her and took advantage of her. In Atticus' cross-examination, Mayella reveals that she has seven siblings to care for, a drunken father, and no friends.
Then Atticus examines her testimony and asks why she didn't put up a better fight, why her screams didn't bring the other children running, and--most importantly--how Tom Robinson managed the crime with a useless left hand, torn apart by ...
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Atticus calls only one witness--Tom Robinson. Tom testifies that he always passed the Ewell house on the way to work, and that Mayella often asked him to do chores for her. On the evening in question, she asked him to come inside the house and fix a door. When he got inside, however, there was nothing wrong with the door, and he noticed that the other children were gone. Mayella told him that she had saved her money and sent them all to buy ice cream, and then she asked him to lift a box down from a dresser. When he climbed up on a chair, she grabbed his legs, scaring him so much that he jumped down. Then she hugged him around the waist, and asked him to kiss her. As she struggled, her father appeared at the window, calling Mayella a whore and threatening to kill her, and then Tom fled.
Link Deas, Tom's white employer, stands up and tells everyone that in eight years of work, he has never had any trouble from Tom. Judge Taylorexpels him furiously from the courtroom for ...
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by her attempt to become a victimizer, to destroy Tom Robinson in order to cover her shame. We can have no real sympathy for Mayella Ewell--whatever her sufferings, she inflicts worse cruelty on others.
Pity must be reserved for Tom Robinson, whose honesty and goodness render him supremely moral. Unlike the Ewells, he is hardworking, honest, and has enough compassion to make the fatal mistake of feeling sorry for Mayella Ewell, a white girl. His story is clearly the true version of events: the story leaves no room for doubt, a detail that a number of critics find unconvincing. But equally clearly he will be a martyr. We are spared much of Mr. Gilmer's cross-examination when Dill's ...
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"To Kill A Mockingbird Notes." Essayworld.com. June 17, 2005. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/To-Kill-A-Mockingbird-Notes/28626.
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