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Observations on Mayella Ewell, Part 2 (sorry I left so quick):

When asked to take a long look at Tom Robinson and confirm if he did it, she said he did.

When asked if the other children were doing anything when she was screaming for help, she seemed shocked and her eyes went all wide.

When asked if Bob Ewell beat her up, she snapped and stood up, said Tom Robinson was the one who raped her and if us fancy gentlemen didn’t want to do anything about it we were cowards, the lot of us, started crying for real this time, and left. At this point I’ve no idea what’s going to happen. 

The Trial of Tom Robinson, Part 2

Observations on Mayella Ewell:

She’s obviously used to working hard but tries to keep clean, since her skin doesn’t look as sensitive as Mr. Ewell’s. 

She’s overwhelmed by the whole scene, since she started crying the second Judge Taylor asked her a question and wouldn’t stop. Or maybe it’s an act. Who knows? 

She’s nineteen years old and scared of Atticus because he tried to expose Mr. Ewell.

She said: She called Tom Robinson to bust up a chifferobe for a nickel, Tom Robinson came up from behind and threw her on the floor, choked her, took advantage of her. She screamed for Mr. Ewell and the next thing she knew Mr. Tate was leading her to a water bucket. 

She doesn’t like how people keep calling her Ma’am and Miss Mayella. 

She’s the oldest of seven siblings and has been to school for two or three years. She doesn’t have any friends and her father is “tolerable”. According to her, Mr Ewell has never hit her. (Clever Atticus, trying to point out how terrible her life is, but I don’t really get the point in that. It has nothing to do with Tom Robinson, does it

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TOM ROBINSON CAN’T USE HIS LEFT ARM--

The Trial of Tom Robinson, Part 2

Observations on Mayella Ewell:

She’s obviously used to working hard but tries to keep clean, since her skin doesn’t look as sensitive as Mr. Ewell’s. 

She’s overwhelmed by the whole scene, since she started crying the second Judge Taylor asked her a question and wouldn’t stop. Or maybe it’s an act. Who knows? 

She’s nineteen years old and scared of Atticus because he tried to expose Mr. Ewell.

She said: She called Tom Robinson to bust up a chifferobe for a nickel, Tom Robinson came up from behind and threw her on the floor, choked her, took advantage of her. She screamed for Mr. Ewell and the next thing she knew Mr. Tate was leading her to a water bucket. 

She doesn’t like how people keep calling her Ma’am and Miss Mayella. 

She’s the oldest of seven siblings and has been to school for two or three years. She doesn’t have any friends and her father is “tolerable”. According to her, Mr Ewell has never hit her. (Clever Atticus, trying to point out how terrible her life is, but I don’t really get the point in that. It has nothing to do with Tom Robinson, does it

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The Trial of Tom Robinson, Part 2

Observations on Mayella Ewell:

She’s obviously used to working hard but tries to keep clean, since her skin doesn’t look as sensitive as Mr. Ewell’s. 

She’s overwhelmed by the whole scene, since she started crying the second Judge Taylor asked her a question and wouldn’t stop. Or maybe it’s an act. Who knows? 

She’s nineteen years old and scared of Atticus because he tried to expose Mr. Ewell.

She said: She called Tom Robinson to bust up a chifferobe for a nickel, Tom Robinson came up from behind and threw her on the floor, choked her, took advantage of her. She screamed for Mr. Ewell and the next thing she knew Mr. Tate was leading her to a water bucket. 

She doesn’t like how people keep calling her Ma’am and Miss Mayella. 

She’s the oldest of seven siblings and has been to school for two or three years. She doesn’t have any friends and her father is “tolerable”. According to her, Mr Ewell has never hit her. (Clever Atticus, trying to point out how terrible her life is, but I don’t really get the point in that. It has nothing to do with Tom Robinson, does it

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Maybe this is what Jem is thinking, that he always knows better than me because he’s older and he’s a boy. Well, how many things you know has nothing to do with real intelligence.

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The Trial of Tom Robinson, Part 1:

Mr. Heck Tate’s Testimonial:

He was fetched by Bob Ewell on the night of November 21st, got in the car, and went to the Ewells’ house as fast as he could. He found Mayella Ewell lying on the floor and asked her who did it. Mayella said it was Tom Robinson and he took advantage of her, so Mr Tate took him in. 

Atticus’ Questions:

Did anyone call a doctor? (No, they didn’t.) 

Please describe Mayella’s injuries. (Things got a bit confusing: Mr Tate said she had a black eye, said it was her left side, then changed his mind and said the right side of her face was injured. There were bruises on her arms and finger marks on her neck.) 

(To Mr. Ewell) Please write your name. (He did.)

Mr. Ewell’s Part:

A lot of words Calpurnia would probably ground me for writing down here. Jem tried to send me home-- the nerve of him!-- but Judge Taylor denied a request to send all the women and children home. Mr. Ewell said getting a doctor for Mayella was too expensive, so he didn’t. He agreed with Mr Tate on her injuries. Mr. Ewell is left-handed, as shown when Atticus asked him to write his name. 

Jem’s Reactions:

A lot of uncomfortable looks when Mr Tate was saying how Tom Robinson took advantage of Mayella, a lot of “shush, Scout, I’m trying to focus” when he was talking about Mayella’s black eye, and a bit of a fit complete with giggling and pounding on the balcony rail when Mr. Ewell wrote his name.

Conclusion? Atticus seems to be trying to prove that Mr Ewell could have beaten up Mayella. Jem keeps saying “we’ve got him” like he hasn’t considered Tom Robinson could be left-handed, too. (Who’s smart now?) I’d better keep watching. This is getting more and more interesting.

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Something for Atticus on the way to the trial... People say it reduces anxiety, and Atticus could sure use some anxiety reduction right about now. 

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I heard Atticus complaining about the number of people coming to see the trial. Jem said the spectators and the jury are the same, and he got lectured for half an hour. This is for you, Jem, and me, so we don’t stress out Atticus again.

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Felt oddly depressed this morning. I really hope Atticus won’t lose the case... 

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In case I forget how a trial works, again, and disappoint Atticus by not knowing.

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A copy of Dill’s notes from Jem’s lecture on the various citizens of Maycomb, kept because they were funny and NOT because I like him so much, JEM:

Mr. Dolphus Raymond: Gets drunk before 8 in the morning. Looks like his horse. Can he stay in saddle for long? [Doodle of Mr. Raymond falling off his horse]

Mennonites in Carriage: Probably burning their arms off in those long sleeves. Live in the woods-- ask Jem about witchcraft?? Men can’t shave after they marry [Doodle of a man with floor-length beard and arm hair grown into a cape]

Mr. X Billups, spelled X and not Ex or Ax, had to write his name and show it to everyone when he was in court because they kept asking him how to spell it. Probably had lots of trouble in school. [Scout’s contribution: “probably they taught him it was spelled Ex and his birth certificate was misspelled”] [Doodle of a man with a red face yelling “X” in court]

Miss Emily Davis: Does drugs secretly, only it’s not so secret because even Jem knows it. 

Mr. Byron Walker: Can play a violin. Probably very boring, because that’s all Jem said about him. 

Wagon Full of Foot-Washing Baptists: Quoted the Scripture at Miss Maudie. Probably spend hours studying the thing so one day they can find a quote so clever Miss Maudie can’t get them back with another quote when they say her garden is a sin. Spoiler alert: It’ll never happen. [Doodle of foot-washers looking like monkeys and scratching their heads]

Miss Maudie Atkinson: We know her. New info: She doesn’t want to go to a trial because she says people are treating it like sport, like a Roman carnival. [Drawing, too nice to call a doodle, of Atticus dressed in armor]

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Aunt Alexandra has been trying to teach me how to behave like a lady, but she never really tells me what’s good about it, so I had to discover it for myself last night.

The Benefits of Being a Lady, or a Girl, Discovered on a Rescue Mission by Scout Finch

If I was a boy and kept pestering Jem to let me go with him to look for Atticus, he could beat me up without Aunty getting upset. But I’m not, so he can’t.

I can marry a boy (yes, Dill and I are still planning to get married, and he looks very handsome when he’s staring at me out of his window way past his bedtime. I'm actually kind of happy with the whole engagement thing.) 

People don’t try to physically drag you back home when you come to see your father at the county jail (long story short: Jem had a bad feeling, I was bored, and Dill had been left unsupervised.) What was that situation, anyway? Atticus was asking his “really” question again, people came to the jail in those black cars, Tom Robinson was there, and it sounded like there was about to be a fight. (Only it wouldn’t be playing fair, with six against one.)

You can call off that fight by babbling to the father of a kid you barely know. It was Walter Cunningham’s dad, and I was getting desperate to distract everyone so Atticus wouldn’t get beat up. So I just told him I thought Walter was a nice kid, that entailments are bad, and kept talking for as long as possible. And then the tension was gone, and Mr Cunningham let us all go! (“I’ll tell Walter you said hey, little lady,” he said to me. See, Aunt Alexandra? I know plenty about being a lady already!) 

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No, Dill, Boo Radley is not going to come out if you leave him a trail of lemon drops going out the front door.

He’s not that stupid, I think. Besides, how will you get the lemon drops or put them there without Atticus killing us all in the name of privacy?

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Jem, Dill and I have been playing with these for a while now in Deer’s Pasture. It’s nice, knowing Dill will be impressed at what we’ll tell him about last winter.

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Okay.

Okay, so Dill is back. He says his new father locked him in the basement, so he escaped and came here with a traveling circus. He says he stole thirteen dollars from his mother and took a train here. (Of course he’d give Jem the serious answer.) Miss Rachel is letting him stay for a while, so that’s good.

  So much has happened since Dill came back. For a start, Mr Tate showed up this evening with a bunch  of other men on our porch and talked to Atticus. I didn’t understand a lot of it, but it sounded like they were going to move Tom Robinson to the county jail and Atticus didn’t want them to. I was scared, to be honest. They were standing in our yard, and Atticus asked if they really thought he had everything to lose from this. Whenever Atticus asks someone if they really think something, they’re in trouble. 

  Thank the lord for Jem-- I guess he’s smart after all, because he yelled at Atticus and made it sound like there was someone on the phone for him. After that the tension kind of broke, and Atticus made everyone go back. Jem had thought it was a gang, like the Ku Klux, and he said someone was trying to hurt Atticus. 

  I’m sick of everyone in this dang house making me worried. Aunt Alexandra says I’ll never grow up to be a decent woman, Atticus keeps getting into cryptic arguments with people, Dill tells stories so well I almost believe he was in danger. But Jem is the worst. Going around saying these things all the time and never explaining anything, and there’s nothing I can do to make him explain it, since he’ll just tell Aunt Alexandra if I beat him up.

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Another of these country songs that plays on the radio at night. I first heard this one on Miss Maudie’s porch.

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Dill’s back?!?