Tate called a doctor to tend to the Ewell girl's injuries, and all three times Tate says no. Then he asks Tate to describe those injuries, and he says she had bruises and a black eye. Atticus asks which eye was the black one, and Tate, after giving him a what-kind-of-stupid-question-is-this look, says it was her left. Atticus gets him to clarify that it was the left from his perspective, which means it was the girl's own right.
Tate, after another question from Atticus, goes on to describe her injuries further: the right side of her face where the black eye was was heavily bruised, and there were finger marks all around her throat. That ends Mr. Tate's testimony, and he leaves the witness stand.
Scout thinks it's all rather boring and dry, not at all the high drama, Law and Orderlawyering she had expected. Now it's Bob Ewell's turn for the witness stand. Scout gives us some facts about the Ewells: they're always on welfare and they live near an African-American settlement in a shack behind the dump.
Which they scavenge. It's a pretty grim life. Beside the trash and the old cars in their front yard, there's one thing that stands out, or rather six: a set of chipped jars holding Mayella's well-tended bright red geraniums. Scout remembers that the nearby African-American houses are clean and inviting, but the Ewell residence is filthy. The point? Ewell gives his version: he came home to hear Mayella screaming inside the house, ran to the window and saw Tom Robinson raping her. At his last words the crowd explodes, and Judge Taylor has to bang his gavel for a full five minutes before they calm down.
And she said to just step on the chair yonder and get that box down from on top of the shifarobe. So I done like she told me and I was reaching, when the next thing I know she grabbed me around the legs. She scared me so bad I hopped down and turned the chair over. That was the only thing, the only furniture disturbed in the room, Mr.
Finch, I swear, when I left it. Q: And what happened after you turned the chair over? You've sworn to tell the whole truth. Will you do it? What happened after that? A: Mr. I got down off the chair and I turned around.
And she sort of jumped on me and hugged me around the waist. She reached up and kissed me on the face. She said she'd never kissed a grown man before and she might as well kiss me.
She asked for me to kiss her back. I said, "Miss Mayella let me out of here. Ewell cussed at her from the window, said he's gonna kill her. Prosecution who has had his feet up on his chair, dangling off the side. Robinson, you're pretty good at busting up shifarobes and kindling with one hand, aren't you? Strong enough to choke the breath out of a woman and sling her to the floor?
Q: With Mr. Ewell and seven children on the place? You did all this chopping and work out of sheer goodness, boy? You a mighty good fella, it seems. You did all that for not one penny? To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant.
There is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses, his right.
I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt, I say guilt, gentleman, because it was guilt that motivated her.
She has committed no crime. She has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe is hounded from our midst, is unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense?
Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white and she tempted a negro. She did something that in our society was unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. By upholding societal conventions in this instance, she's able to protect another's — a man's — pride and standing in the community.
Scout may not like or agree with society's expectations of her, but she now understands that acting within those parameters is often a show of kindness and compassion. Significantly, inside her home, Scout leads Boo; outside, she allows him to lead her. Scout recognizes that she can project a ladylike appearance on the outside while remaining true to herself and her own convictions on the inside.
The story ends with Scout well on her way to growing up, as well. She now has some idea of what being a lady involves, and she no longer seems to mind so much. But importantly, Lee leaves readers with the remembrance that Scout the narrator is still a little girl. For all she's been through, she still feels best sitting on Atticus' lap, having him read her to sleep.
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My Preferences My Reading List. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee.
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