Mayella's Direct and Cross Examination | Chapter 18 So far

   In the beginning of chapter 18 Mayella had gone towards the witness stand where she would be questioned by both Mr. Gilmer and Atticus. The direct examination had started with Mr. Gilmer asking her about what had happened the evening of November twenty-first the year before. She had started out saying that she was on the front porch in front of her house, she then started crying of course, the usual sly way of getting the jurors to feel bad for her and to feel affectionate/sympathize towards her. This is very smart of her to do, it probably was a fake cry, but even if it was real it is a good way to grow a relationship with the jury, because since the jury is all white men, they feel like they should help out this young girl, as if it were their daughter. She then goes on saying that she is scared of Atticus, because he might try to embarrass her like he did to her father. She then continues her story, she was cutting a dresser her father had told her to chop up to use for kindling. That was when Tom Robinson had passed by her home, she had asked him to the work for a nickel, he supposedly agreed and started to chop the dresser while she went in the house looking for a nickel. She had found a nickel, but when she had turned around Tom had been there, he grabbed her all the way around her neck and started beating her. She also said that she had been screaming and fighting back, but it was no use, after beating her she says that he had took advantage of her. She then ended her story saying that she forgot whatever happened after it, but remembers her father all of a sudden in front of her, Tom gone, shouting who did this to her. Later Mr. Tate had come in and helped her off the floor. She said that she was sure of all of the things that she had explained.
   After the direct examination, the cross examination had started. Atticus had started questioning her and was being respectful, calling her ma'am and Miss Mayella, but she had been offended. Atticus later on says that his memory is not great as it used to be when he was younger, so she'll have to repeat herself multiple times throughout the trial, but we all know that this is a lie and is a trick. In my opinion this is clever of him to do, because by asking the question multiple times to her asking her if she is sure, and then later if what she had said was not adding up, he could say that she was 100% sure and use this against her. She then answers other questions he had asked her. She says that she is the eldest, that her mother has been dead for a long time, went to school for two/three years, and reads and writes as well as her father, which means her handwriting is very bad and that she is uneducated. The jury had also learned that her father didn't feed the family enough food, he'd leave and return days later sick from drinking, water was from a spring around the local landfill, and that her father had wanted all the children to stay at home to work at home. Atticus then asks if she loves her father and if he is easy to get along with. She answers that she can live with him, but it's not easy, and says that it is actually hard to live with him when, she then stops there. Atticus then continues the sentence with: except when he's drinking. Mayella then nods in agreement. She then says that he has never laid a hand on her. Atticus confirms with her that Tom had supposedly used both his hands to grab her all the way around her neck. Finally Atticus asks if Tom had beaten her in the face, she hesitates to answer it and when she does answer the question she says that she doesn't remember him beating her there, but then she says he did,right after. This really caught Mayella and proved that this story was all made up, because she was unsure of being beaten in the face, while in her father's story she was beaten up on the left eye. I think that after this the jury had questioned whether Mayella was lying this whole time, and their stories were made up. In my opinion this was very smart of Atticus to do.
   Atticus had then brought up Tom right in front of Mayella, she confirmed that he had raped her and choked, and beaten her in the left eye. But when Tom had gotten up, everyone could see that his left arm was a foot shorter than his right one, and his hand was shriveled up. Atticus had asked her a series of questions after, one of them had been why hadn't the other children heard her screams, she had no answer to the question. Atticus then turns it around and says to her that had she screamed because she had seen her father instead of Tom, Tom wasn't the one who beat her up, but it was your father, she says nothing to this. Atticus then asks her why she won't tell the truth, finally she had enough and says that she got raped by Tom, and if no one wants to do anything about it they're sick, and she ends the cross examination with her crying. She answers no other questions that Atticus had asked her. I was surprised when I had read that she had actually cried for real at the end. Though her not answering some of the huge questions really messed up her chance of winning the jury's side. By the way the trial is going I think that Tom will win, based off of the stories that didn't add up. And since Tom had a shriveled hand, he couldn't had hit her in the left eye if she was fighting back/defending herself, and he could not have grabbed her all the way around her neck, because that takes two hands. She really set herself chance of winning back after Atticus had exposed her of these things. So far I really think that Atticus will win.