Friday, October 17, 2008

Chapters 18-21

What was Mayella's account of the incident with Tom Robinson? What was Tom's side of the story? Which is correct? What was Tom's handicap? Why was it important to his case?What are the details that allow the reader to know the truth?

8 comments:

Aub said...

The day of Tom Robinson's trial was a pretty big in terms of commotion. Today the courthouse had garnered a bigger crowd than usual. "Normally, they were the court's only spectators, and today they seemed resentful of the interruption of their comfortable routine." (163)

Even though Atticus told Dill, Jem, and Scout not to follow him around that day, they came anyways. As soon as they found a seat with Reverend Sykes the first witness came up to talk. The sheriff described his experience the night of the alleged raping. All he got to see was a very bruised Mayella Ewell. She claimed the Tom had been in the room and that he had raped her. Mr. Tate never actually saw Tom. He only saw what had happened to Mayella. Mayella was bruised on her RIGHT eye.

Next Mr. Ewell came up to give his view on things. He said that as he was approaching his house on the way home from the woods he heard Mayella "raisin' this holy racket"(173), so he ran on over home only to find Tom Robinson raping his daughter. Mr. Ewell claimed that Tom ran out when he ran in to stop Tom. After seeing to his duaghter's safety, Mr. Ewell ran out to get Mr. Tate. Also, Atticus made Mr. Ewell sign his name and found out that he was LEFT handed.

Mayella was next to appeal. She spent a lot of her time sobbing. Her story was almost exactly the same as Tate and Mr. Ewells except she added one detail: she asked Tom to come and bust some wood. She said that Tom compied, so she went in to get a nickel for him. That is when she claimed that Tom attacked.

"He got me round the neck..." (182)

When Atticus asked Mayella about the details of her story, she seemed hesitant. She later said that she didn't remember wether or not Tom hit her.

Finally, Tom came up to the stand and told his side of the story. The first thing that was apparent was that he was crippled in his LEFT arm. His was useless. Tom claimed that Mayella had actually no work for him, and just asked him to get something down off a high shelf. As Tom reached for it, Mayella grabbed him by the legs and kissed him. Tom did his best not to fight back. When Mr. Ewell showed up, he ran for his life. He was "Scared or arrest..." (199).

It is obvious that Tom was telling the truth. He was an honest person; Link Deas could testify to that. It also would have been really hard for Tom to beat Mayella on her RIGHT eye using his RIGHT arm seeing as his LEFT was useless. Mr. Ewell on the other hand was much better with LEFT arm that his right. Mr. Ewell probably hurt Mayella. Why? I'm not sure at this point.

Isabela Schmucker said...

Mayella was the one who was raped. Tom Robinson's side of the story was very different from the rest of the witnesses. He said that he was walking home, past the Ewell's house, and Mayella called him in to come and fix the door. When Tom came in and looked at the door, it was perfectly fine. Then Mayella asked him to look at something else. Then when Tom had his back to Mayella, he came up to him and hugged him, then he kissed him. Tom was trying to get away, without being harmful. Then, all of a sudden, Mr. Ewell burst into the room and called Mayella a_______. Tom ran away as fast as he could since he was so frightened. This is what Mr. Tom Robinson said that happened.
Tom had a very short and skinny arm. This makes him handicap. This happened when he was doing some other work. And this makes it all the more obvious that Tom couldn't have harmed Mayella.

Unknown said...

As told by Aubrey and Isabela, Mayella was the one who was raped. Supposively Tom Robinson was the one who raped her. Heck Tate, Bob Ewell, and Mayella herself all said their sides of the story. All that Heck Tate knew was that Mayella had been beaten and saw all of her scares (as told by Aubrey). Bob Ewell said that he had only seen Tom R. on top of Mayella and watched Tom run away from the house. When Tom Robinson was called to the stand, his story was different from those of Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell.
I believe that Tom R. had the correct story. First, because Mr. Underwood had stood up while Tom Robinson was being questioned and said that Tom had worked for him for about 8 years and did no harm. Second, because Tom's story made more sense. His story was that Miss Mayella had called him to the back yard to cut something, then asked him to come into the house and take something off a shelf. While he was getting it she grabbed him and hugged him, later giving him a kiss. After that Tom R. said that Bob Ewell entered the house and yell,(sorry for the phrases) "You whore, I'm gonna kill ya!" And that was when Tom Robinson took off running because he did not want to get in trouble with a white man. Third, all the muscles of Tom Robinson's right arm had been riped out by a cotton machine when he was 10 years old. This is important to the case because Mayella said that Tom had grabbed her and put his hands around his neck. Tom would not be able to do that because he would only have one arm to put around her neck, and one hand could not go all the way around her neck.
This concludes my blog.

Uin Kim said...

Mayella Ewell said that she told Tom Robinson to come into her house to fix a broken door hinge. According to her, Tom suddenly tackled her, beat her, and raped her. But according to Tom, Mayella told Tom to come into her house and Mayella hugged him from the back. Tom’s account is right. Tom’s handicap is his right hand that was cut off when he was young. This is important because Mayella was beat in the right side of the body. Her father, Bob Ewell, was left handed, and this proves that it was him that beat Mayella.

sora cho said...

Mayella Ewell asked Tom Robinson, who was passing in front of the porch, to fix her the door. She went inside the house to get a nickel for him, and when she turned around, she realized that Tom Robinson was behind her. Supposedly, he had beaten her up and then took advantage of her. She declares that Tom Robinson had raped her. However, Tom's version of the story is different. He was passing through the Ewell's porch to get to work, when he noticed that Mayella had called him. He went towards her and she suddenly grabbed him and kissed him. She would not let go of him, and Tom could not refuse because he did not want to harm her. Bob Ewell had come and found Tom and Mayella together. Since Mayella did not want to be guilty for her own actions, she had accused Tom that he had raped her, so she could be able to hide her lies. An advantage Tom Robinson had in the trial was that his right hand was twelve inches short, because his arm was caught in a mill when he was young. He can't use his right hand, which proves that he can't hurt Mayella with his hand. She was beaten badly in the face in the right side, and Bob Ewell was left handed, meaning that he was the one that had hurt her.

andy said...

Her account was that she asked him to come and do something for her and her beat her to the ground. Tom's side was that he did go to her but she hugged him and tried to kiss him. He got scared and ran away. Sadly, Mr. Ewell saw him run away and roared something to him. Tom's handicap is that his had was cut when he was young and he can barely use it at all. The big thing is that Mayella was beat on all sides of her body. It would wave been extremely hard to beat her in such a way with only one arm to grab her, beat her and finally rape her. Bob Ewell however can use both hand and it would have been far easier to do something to her since he is both left and right handed. He has equal strength on both arms and that is the flaw he mad.

yellowtyson said...

Mayella said that she had asked for Tom Robinson's help for a job she could not do in her house which was fixing the door. He came in and took advantage of her. Tom said that he did go in the house, but Mayella hugged him and tried to kiss him. Tom Robinson's account is correct. Tom's handicap was right handed because on his left arm, he had gotten seriously injured when he was young, so he could hardly use it. Bob Ewell is left handed so that proves that he beat her up. Mayella had a bruise on her right eye, so Tom could not have done it.

Jacky Mejia said...

According to Mayella, she had asked Tom to come in and fix a door. She said Tom said the door was perfectly fine, and later took advantage of her. Tom said Miss Mayella asked him to take a look at the door. It was fine. Mayella then came and hugged him, and later kissed him. Bob had seen this and called Mayella a b****. Tom ran away because of the fright. The truth is, Mayella is not raped, but was beaten by her father, Bob Ewell. Tom could not have beaten her because he does not have a right hand, since it was cut off when he was little.