When Atticus goes up to perform his cross examination on Mayella, he uses miss or ma'am. Mayella takes offense to those courtesy terms because she hasn't heard those in her life. Atticus asks her basic questions and acts like he doesn't have a good mind. She tells Atticus about her home life and about her education. She is not very smart and she stays home from school to do work around the house. Only a few children in their family know how to read and write. Bob Ewell spends the checks that they get and spends it on alcohol. He goes out into the woods and doesn't come back for a few days. Their mother is dead and the children have to take care of themselves. Their life is full of poverty and ignorance. Atticus asks her if she has any friends and she doesn't know what that means. Mayella thinks that Atticus is making fun of her again. Atticus also asks if her father loves her and she doesn't get what that means either. I feel bad for Mayella because she doesn't know what this means and she is in poverty. Atticus starts to have a sharp mind and starts being strict on her. He asks Mayella if Tom raped her and makes Tom stand up. His left arm is crippled because it got caught in a cotton gin and it tore out his muscles. Tom couldn't beat Mayella because she was beat on her right side and Tom can't use his left hand. Atticus starts to ask her a lot of questions and she doesn't answer them. Mayella finally walks up and tells the jurors they are cowards if they don't protect her from what Tom did to her. This gets the men to be protective over Mayella. Atticus is going to call up Tom Robinson for his witness after the short break.
I feel like Atticus could have still had a sharp mind, but not saying questions all at once because he made her get of the witness stand and walk away. This is bad for Atticus because he needs to get more evidence to show that Tom isn't guilty. Mayella uses emotion to get that protective instinct from the jurors and emotions shouldn't matter in a trial. Atticus is trying to use evidence in this trial, while other people are using emotions to get the jurors to be protective over Mayella. Atticus is going to have to come with something on his direct examination on Tom Robinson.
Reflections on Harper Lee's classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" from Blessed Trinity 8th graders.
I like your blog post your summary had a lot of information. Also on your thoughts on Atticus asking a lot of questions at once, I personally think it worked well. He was going to make her stumble and she would make an outburst anyways. She would not answer questions which I think worked in his favor that she could not combat him. Though still her outburst was effective, but I think he played his part perfectly fine.
ReplyDeleteYou ad a good summary in your first paragraph. You had good details from the Chapter. Good point about how their life is full of ignorance and poverty. I agree with you about how Atticus could have been more gentle to Mayella so she wouldn't have broken down which caused the jurys natural protective instincts to kick in because they are all men.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job on summarizing what happend and your views and thoughts on the chapter. I agree with the fact that Atticus could have been more caring with Mayella and slowed the questions down so that all her emotions would nto have built up and cause her to have a breakdown. I do however think that it was good because it confused her and proved that it couldn have been Tom
ReplyDeleteGood job in your blog post, Aiden. I also would have to agree with you. Atticus has a sharp mind and is slowly building up his case but Mayella's sudden burst was not good at all. All of the men, like you said are now going to feel more protective of her. And yes emotion should not matter in a trail, I have a bad feeling that it will affect the whole trial...but let's hope for the best. Maybe Atticus will recover with his direct-examination but we are not sure yet. Overall good job with your blog post, it was entertaining to read.
ReplyDeleteVery good job in your blog post Aiden.I really liked it, I also like how you explained everything by detail. I mostly like where you explained that she was mad being called ma'am. Mayella's sudden burst was not good at all. All of the men, like you said are now going to feel more protective of her. And yes emotion should not matter in a trail. But it does in this situation which it is not good.Then she would not answer questions which I think worked. This is very sad because it means she has a bad childhood. Very good job Aiden I would just add a meme or a gif to make it entertaining.
ReplyDeleteGood job summarizing what happened so far. I agree with you that Atticus is secretly and slowly building up the case. Mayella shouldnt win because of emotion because it isn't fair to Atticus because he is using evidence. When Atticus had the upper hand Mayella burst into emotion and it gave Mayella the advantage because the men think that they must protect the poor girl.Overall good job with this blog post.
ReplyDeleteI thought you had a great summarizing of what has happened. However, I don't agree with you on Atticus's questions. I thought that he had to act like he couldn't remember in order for Mayella to answer the questions. I think that Atticus had done a great job with Mayella's testimony. He got her flustered, and unsure of herself. I find his questioning of Mayella went well, because it started to open up the true facts of the case instead of a lie.
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