There were pretty significant moments in this novel about the trial. People that took part in the trial had different testimonies such as Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell, and Heck Tate. Heck claimed that after being contacted by Bob Ewell,he went to visit the Ewell home to find Mayella on the floor beaten. He said that he saw the right side of her face badly beaten with bruises near her neck. Bob claimed that he heard Mayella screaming within the Ewell house, and when he came inside, he saw Tom run away after seeing Bob. During Atticus' cross examination, furthermore, Bob consent with a request for Tom to write his name, which he did with his left hand. Mayella claimed that she offered Tom Robinson a nickel to ”bust up the chiffarobe,”
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the trial in the novel is one of the most important incidents that takes place in the text. It is very important to our understanding of the text as a whole as it shows the racial discrimination in that time period of the 1920 – 1930’s and how society in the 20th century has improved and has become more accepting of different races throughout the world as a whole. The topics that will be discussed in this essay are the trial and how it represented a prejudiced society, what happened after the trial and the effects that the trial had on the children.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a book with very different and bias views. In the book the trial takes place with a man named Tom Robinson accused of rape. The trial has many different perspectives from different people including: Atticus, The town’s people, and the children.
In chapter five of "To Kill A Mocking Bird", the children vision Boo Radley as a frightening character. Miss Maudie claims that Boo Radley's biological name is Arthur, and he was claimed to be a "foot washing Baptist" and doesn't leave his house. "His name's Arthur and he's still alive"(Lee 43). "You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist"(Lee 44). "Foot-washers believe that anything that's pleasure is a sin"(Lee 44). The evidence proves how "Boo" Radley or "Arthur" Radley was a foot-washer and never left his house. Atticus also views "Boo Radley" a little differently. Atticus just informs the children to stop bugging Boo and to let him live his life the way he wants to. "I'm going to tell you something and only one time: stop tormenting that man"(Lee 49). "What Mr. Radley did was his own business. If he wanted to come out, he would. If he wanted to stay inside his own house he had the right to stay inside from the attentions of inquisitive children,..."(Lee 49). Evidence explains exactly how Atticus wants the children to leave him alone and
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 intriguing novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. Lee has utilised the lifestyle and attitudes towards African-Americans" in the 1930's to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee's attitudes and values. The dominant reading of the novel is focused on the issues of racial prejudice, but there are also a number of other alternative and oppositional readings. Examples of this are the Marxist and feminist readings which can be applied to the text.
In 'To Kill a Mockingbird' many morals about the themes in the novel are portrayed through different issues and events. The major themes are appearance vs. reality courage, maturity and prejudice. Each of these themes has an event in the novel that help the reader understand its message.
On Sunday, when Atticus has to leave town, Cal takes Jem and Scout to church. They enter the church, sit down, and listen to the Reverend Skyes speak. He talks about how they will all pray for Tom Robinson and his family while he is at court. Scout asks where the hymn books are, and Cal hushes her. When they sing the hymns Zeebo, Cal’s oldest son, goes up to the front of the church. Since the church doesn’t have any hymn books Zeebo has to memorize them and sing a verse to the crowd, which they repeat back to him. Near the end of church the Reverend says that they do not have enough money to give to Tom Robinson’s family. So he closes the church doors and makes the crowd give up ten more dollars to help.
Atticus Hill cherished and fostered his role as the bad boy in the family. He always dressed in all black, rode a Harley, and had long, shaggy black hair. But now that all his brothers had found their Mr. Right he thought maybe, at age thirty-nine, it was time to look around for a partner. He thought the drummer at the gay bar was sexy, so headed off there to check him out.
On August 9, 2014,a young man by the name of Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. It is little known why the shooting occurred, but the boy was unarmed.This could be one of many cases of modern day racism and segregation. In 1930, “even after the abolishment of slavery in 1865, blacks were still almost powerless(BBC 2)”.Blacks were heavily segregated and had almost no rights.Many cases of segregation in the 1930s caused a lot of current day racial tension in the united states.
The trial itself provides Harper Lee with the opportunity to examine the attitudes of people like the Ewells and the presumably more respectable members of the jury. Bob Ewell emerges as a drunken, bullying, child-abuser with little respect for the law and even less for truth and justice. But however low in the social order he is, Bob Ewell can still look down on black people. At the beginning of his testimony he complains about a 'nest' of them near him bringing down the property values of his shack by the town dump. Tom's account of Mayella's actions suggests that he may have indulged in some form of incest with his daughter, but the taboo against relationships between white women and black men is so strong that even Bob Ewell is shocked and horrified by it. He responds first by savagely beating his daughter and then by accusing Tom Robinson of rape.
Chapter 1 begins as a flashback told by the main character and narrator, a young girl named Scout. This retelling of the story continues through the entire book. the author of this novel, Harper Lee, characterizes scout the narrator as an intelligent tomboy who is not so sure she wants to deal with the Radleys. Scout always hung around her older brother Jem and Dill, a boy who visited Maycomb every summer. She was always up for whatever they did and really did not like it when they called her girly. Dill became fascinated with the Radleys and their mysteriously hidden son Boo. Scout urged Dill to let the Radleys keep to themselves, but her harassing of Dill did nothing. Even though Scout is a clever girl, Lee makes it obvious that Scout still
The trial is one of the most exciting parts of the book and the most interesting. When the trial started Tom Robinson was accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, MayElla. Many people testified and Atticus would ask different people different questions and he figured out that Bob Ewell was the one who did the crime all of the evidence said so. When the jury went to decide “ I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was pulling the jury: Guilty … guilty … guilty … guilty” (pg.282) Tom Robinson, a black man, is innocent against a white man but an all-white jury will not be convinced of that.
"The most frightening time I spent in a movie theater occurred when I saw the movie Mama.”
In a trial, a court has to do what is fair for the accused and the accuser. The end result can cause some people to disagree but it being fair is what matters in the end. A court trial being marred by racial discrimination is not the definition of a fair trial. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is a black man accused by a white man by the name of Bob Ewell of raping his daughter Mayella Ewell. The protagonist’s father, Atticus Finch, is Tom’s defendant in the trial and he defends him to the best of his ability (even if he knows that there is no chance that Tom will be acquitted). Despite Atticus proving Tom’s innocence, Tom is unfairly tried for the crime and he is eventually killed in prison for attempted escape.
Chapter 1- The book starts out with Scout, Jem, and Dill and this little boy from Mississippi meet during the summer. Dill tries and plays all these games to get a plan for Boo to come outside. Jem finally runs into the Radley’s yard and touches the outside of the house. Chapter 2- Dill goes back to Mississippi for school and Scout is starting first grade.