In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Atticus is set to defend a black man by the name of Tom Robinson who is being committed of a crime he was not involved in. Atticus wonders if the roles of Mr. Ewell and Tom Robinson were reversed. He says to Mayella, “What did your father see in the window, the crime of rape or the best defense to it.” Atticus thinks that Mr. Ewell blamed Tom Robinson for the act of rape because no one would believe a black man. When Atticus asked this question to Mayella he wanted to know how her father seen the “crime”. Atticus wanted to know if her father seen the “crime of rape” or the “best defense to it”. This means that Atticus wants to know if he saw Tom Robinson forcing Mayella to have Interaction
After Tom Robinson was charged with raping 19 year old Mayella Ewell, he was taken to court and Atticus had to defend his case. On page 212 of the novel Tom Robinson states that he ran away from Mayella when she had kissed him because he was scared, Atticus asked him why and he said “ Mr Finch, is you were a nigger like me, you’d be scared, too.“ Tom said this because of the society that they lived in where all “Black” people were not to be trusted. Atticus did his best to prove to the jury that Tom Robinson was not guilty for the crime that he was charged for
I am reading the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This book is about a girl named Scout Finch who lives with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus, during the Great Depression. They live in a small town called Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a town where everybody knows everybody. There is currently a trial taking place; Mayella vs. Tom Robinson. Tom has been accused of rapeing Mayella. Tom has pleaded not guilty for the crime he has been accused of. In this journal I will be evaluating Tom’s character and questioning why the Ewells may be lying.
Atticus questions Mayella: “‘I mean, is he good to you, is he easy to get along with?’He does tollable, ‘cept when—’‘Except when?’ Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with his chair tipped against the railing. He sat up straight and waited for her to answer. ‘Except when nothin‘,’said Mayella. “I said he does tollable.’ Mr. Ewell leaned back again’” (Lee 18). Mayella is being abused with power by her father since her father has more power than her which makes Mayella afraid to even speak. While being questioned, Tom Robinson states what Mayella told him: “She says what her papa do don’t count” (Lee 18). Mayella is shown being abused by her father again since Mayella has no power in regards to gender. Mayella is powerless in regards to gender since she is a powerless woman in her time period. Although Mayella is powerless in gender, she is powerful in
The evil character in To Kill A Mockingbird is Bob Ewell. The passage says, “‘Who beat you up? Tom Robinson or your father?’ No answer. ‘What did your father see in the window, the crime of rape or the best defense to it?
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, shows how life was for those in the southern part of the United States, during a time when racism ran rampant throughout the land. Many injustices were committed to those of “Negro” descent, and it was up to those behind the law to protect them as well as those who lived by the law. Atticus, attorney at law, defender of the people, and father to Scout and brother Jem is safeguarding Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. As the story continues though, Mayella’s accounts of the facts aren’t quite as how they actually happened. Together, Scout (Jean Louise Finch), Jem and Atticus show courage to stand up for what is right, defend the innocent until proven guilty, and how to remain
In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" Atticus Finch protects a black man named Tom Robinson in court for good reasons despite the fact that everybody opposes him to do as such. The court case is between the Ewell family and Tom Robinson who they are blaming for beating and assaulting Mayella Ewell. The main motivation for Atticus to be supporting Tom Robinson is that it is the just thing to do since Tom is innocent. Tom Robinson tries to tell the truth in court and show how Mayella is the person who was really behind it all. According to the novel it states, "She came to up and kissed me in favor of my face.
To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” (Lee 101). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus, Scout’s father, is willing to defend Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is an African American that is charged with raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, daughter of Bob Ewell. Although, Atticus lost the trial, he gave his best effort by showing that he wanted to help Tom Robinson.
Atticus Finch must defend a black man, Tom Robinson, in a case against the Ewell’s. The daughter, Mayella Ewell, said she was raped and beaten by Robinson. They also had witnesses in court saying they saw him outside of her window, but this was false. The truth was that Mayella called for Robinson to fix a door in the house, but she tried to get with and of course he refused. This displeased her, so she lied about getting attacked by him. In court, she had a black eye on her right side. Atticus noticed this and asked Mr. Ewell (Mayella’s father) to write his name. He did so, then he asked Tom to catch something and he couldn’t because his left side was mangled due to a cotton gin accident. Ewell wrote his name with his left hand. This was important because it shows Mr. Ewell had actually raped and beaten his own daughter, but because this was during the south at a time of racism, Robinson was convicted of the crimes he was charged with, though everyone in the town knows who actually did the crime. In chapter 28, the children (Jem and Scout) are coming back from a play they did at school. It’s pitch black out and they hear someone. That someone eventually runs and tries to attack them. He slashed almost through Scout’s costume and again tries to attack Jem when he tries to help Scout. When Scout is down on the ground, she hears struggling, then it stops. This was actually Mr.
Atticus has been given a case to protect a negro, Tom Robinson, from a rape case against a white woman, Mayella Ewell, her father Bob Ewell has become very disliking of Atticus because of his choice to protect a negro. Despite the verdict of Tom’s case with him going to jail due to racism Bob still has this hatred for Atticus. Bob
In Sarah Churchwells, “Why the Humanities Matter”, she emphasizes on the importance that the humanities is what makes us human. To broaden our understanding of the humanities, Sarah encourages improvement of our communication skills and to expand our knowledge of other societies. After, she warns the audience about the dangers of losing the humanities due to the opinions of politicians and corporations who claim that people are merely workers and consumers rather than citizens or individuals. Churchwells furthers her argument by stating examples of humanities protecting human existence beyond industry. She then states that falling into the trap of politicians and corporations; become consumers rather than citizens, we destroy thousands of years
For years people have been accusing Tom Robinson for raping Mayella Ewell and since it was a black man against a white woman they was going to believe the white woman because he was a black man and they white people looked down on the black people. Atticus was the lawyer that stood up for the black people because he thought everybody was equal. In this story Atticus is taking up for Tom Robinson, because Mr.Ewell claimed that Tom had raped his daughter Mayelle, because she told her father that he came into the house and forced himself on her and she screamed and yelled for help. A tumultuous event such as the Great Depression exacerbated tensions in the novel much like the negative perception of the homeless influences conflicts today; this is revealed through the
In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is in trial for the supposed rape of Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson was on his way home when Mayella Ewell asked him to help her with something. Being a kind man, he went into her yard and started to look for some of the plants he usually dug up for her when she asked him for help. He didn’t find any, so he asked her what it was she needed. She told him a box she needed was up in a place she couldn’t reach. He went in the house and grabbed the box, and after he did Mayella told him the door was broken. Tom Robinson proceeded to look at the door, not finding anything wrong with it. He told her and she jumped on him, hugging him and saying she never kissed a black
The Rorschach test, used first in 1918, has been the center of much controversy in the field of psychology. This particular test uses print inkblots in order to test many factors within clients based on how they answer when asked about the pictures. Although Hermann Rorschach never made it known where he got the idea for the Rorschach test, it is believed it was inspired by the game Blotto, which was a game which used inkblots. The Rorschach test was originally used to test patients with schizophrenia during which Rorschach discovered that these patients responded significantly in a different way from others without schizophrenia. Later, Rorschach began working more with the test using forty inkblots in his original studies but only using fifteen of them commonly with his clients. Today, this test is used by highly trained professionals who are studying personality based on scoring clients’ answers to questions about the inkblots. (Framingham, 2016)
Atticus is appointed to defend a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. She is a member of the Ewell family, who is looked down upon by Maycomb society and referred to as "white trash." Atticus knows that Tom has almost no chance because he is black and will be tried by an all white jury. Nevertheless, he wants to help him reveal the truth.
For instance, during the trial, Mayella was depicted as an innocent, feeble victim, however, Atticus attacks this false image and he tells the jury, “She [Mayella] was white and she tempted a Negro” (Paragraph 6) According to Atticus’s theory, Mayella had never been raped and had lied to bury the evidence of her offense, an act that went against all social order in Maycomb, thus inspiring feelings of disgust and disbelief within the jury. By antagonizing Mayella, Atticus causes the jury to question Mayella’s word and no longer regard her with pity, by revealing her true colors. Atticus also appeals to the jury’s emotions, when he describes Tom to the jury, “And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro...had to put his word against two white people’s” (Paragraph 8). Atticus effectively breaks the racial barriers and strips the jury from their prejudiced views of blacks, by presenting Tom as a respectable and humble man. Above all, by demonstrating how Tom was like any other respectable man, regardless of his skin color, Atticus evokes sympathy within the jury through causing them to consider the unfairness of his trial, considering the prejudice present in the courtroom. Atticus also attempts to garner the jury’s pity for Tom, when he states, “...my pity does not extend so far so as to her [Mayella] putting a man’s life at stake, which she has done in effort to rid her of her own guilt” (Paragraph 3). Atticus explains how Mayella’s true motive for accusing Tom was to cover up her offense, kissing a Negro, and she went as far as to even jeopardizing his life. By revealing Mayella’s selfish motive, Atticus presents Tom as the real victim, rather Mayella. Therefore, Atticus is able to convey Tom’s innocence in the case and evoke the jury’s pity, considering that Tom’s life was entirely dependent on an unreliable chief witness’s testimony.