My
page numbers don't line up with yours, so I'll help you consider various aspects of young 's
interpretation of some of the events of the trial.
Just before the trial
begins, a lynch mob shows up at Tom Robinson's cell.is waiting for them, and he refuses to allow
the group near his client. Things get tense, and it is eight-year-old Scout's words that
diffuses the anger of the group. She helps Mr. Cunningham in particular to see that Atticus is a
good man who has helped the Cunningham family. She helps him see all that Atticus has in common
with them; they both have children who are about the same age. Scout is able to diffuse the
anger of the group leading up to the trial by showing them that Atticus is a man and father just
like the rest of them, fighting for his own family and for what he believes is right.
The facts of the case are so clear-cut that even a young child understands that Tom
could not possibly have done what Mayella has accused him of.
At the end of
, Scout makes the following observation:
Atticus was
trying to show, it seemed to me, that Mr. Ewell could have beaten up Mayella. That much I could
follow. If her right eye was blacked and she was beaten mostly on the right side of the face, it
would tend to show that a left-handed person did it.
They
later learn that Tom cannot use his left arm because it was severely injured in a horrible
accident. While her father could have inflicted the injuries, even a child
can see that Tom Robinson could not.
Scout also
understands that it gives Atticus no comfort to expose Mayella's delicate position in an effort
to save his own client. When Mayella ends her testimony by bursting into sobs, she watches her
father sit down and hang his head. She realizes that Mayella is allowed extra liberties by the
judge for her outrageous behavior on the stand because she is "poor and ignorant."
Thus, she understands that Mayella is also a victim of sorts because she has been raised by Bob
Ewell.
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