Thursday, April 22, 2010

On what page of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird did Atticus point out that Bob Ewell was left-handed?

On pages 179 and 180 of the edition of Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, consulted for this purpose -- a paperback edition "Published by arrangement with McIntosh and Otis, Inc." -- Atticus Finch observes for the benefit of the jury in the rape trial of the African American defendant Tom Robinson that the father of Tom's accuser, Bob Ewell, is left-handed. Bob is a virulently racist and eternally bitter personification of 'poor white trash' who was clearly the individual who inflicted the wounds on his daughter Mayella that have been blamed on Tom. In Chapter 17 of Lee's novel, Atticus, attempting to defend his African American client in this racially-segregated society, seeks to implicate Bob Ewell for his daughter's injuries by demonstrating that Tom, whose left arm is crippled, could not have physically inflicted those wounds, but that Bob, who is left-handed, was the one most likely to have been guilty. In the following passage, Atticus tricks Bob into displaying his left-handedness:



“Would you write your name for us?” he asked. “Clearly now, so the jury can see you do it.”


Mr. Ewell wrote on the back of the envelope and looked up complacently to see Judge Taylor staring at him as if he were some fragrant gardenia in full bloom on the witness stand, to see Mr. Gilmer half-sitting, half-standing at his table. The jury was watching him, one man was leaning forward with his hands over the railing.


“What’s so interestin‘?” he asked.


“You’re left-handed, Mr. Ewell,” said Judge Taylor.



Having now established for the jury and for the judge that Bob Ewell is left-handed, Atticus will next, in Chapter 18, display for the courtroom Tom's infirmity while implicating Mayella Ewell in a conspiracy to frame Tom for a rape that didn't occur -- at least a rape that wasn't carried out by Tom. The wounds to Mayella's face are on the right-side, consistent with a beating meted out by somebody with the left-hand. Implication: Tom could not have committed the crime, and Bob almost certainly did.

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