TKAM Trial So Far

   To summarize the trial I would say it starts with Mr. Gilmer asking Bob Ewell to tell what happened in his own words, he does this with all his witnesses as it is an effective perhaps overdone, but effective way to build a connection with the jury. This would be very difficult for him as the Ewells are of the most despised and disgusted family of all of Maycomb. However to Bob Ewell he just sees this as an opportunity to try to endear himself to the rest of the city. He tries at first to be a clown there in front of them all until a few stern warnings from Judge Taylor get to him. Then he just wants to act confident and decent in front of Maycomb.

When you start getting grilled in court
Tom Robinson

    Atticus seeing this decides to try and use this against him to manipulate him into not thinking everything through or being to prideful and not think carefully enough. This is exactly what he does to Bob Ewell as taking advantage of his cockiness asks him a very irrelevant question at first to which Judge Taylor is shocked Mr. Gilmer did not object though Atticus tells them both it will make sense in a minute so he asks the Judge permission which is granted and he asks Bob Ewell if he can read or write, obviously since he is in front of all these people he desperately wants to impress there is no way he can say no and he knows very little so he says yes. Atticus then asks him if he can show them to which if Bob Ewell were not so confident, and Atticus's questions had not  given him a false sense of confidence he just would not have answered though a combination of wanting to impress the people, being confident, and underestimating Atticus led him straight into Atticus's trap, and Atticus clever as he is made sure he would fall in. He not understanding why says yes happily writes and shows all of Maycomb, however they were not impressed at all and were in fact shocked as Judge Taylor breaking his usual form of alertness hidden under a casual persona even asked in shock that he was left handed.
   This was very shocking because left handed people are very rare as in our classroom for example only ten percent are left handed and Atticus earlier proved that the killer in order to beat Mayella's right side mainly must of been left handed and with Atticus trying to prove Bob Ewell did it this is an insanely huge point to support his case. Afterwards Atticus is done with his cross examination on Bob Ewell and Bob Ewell later realizes during Mayella's examination what trick Atticus played on him and was peeved. During Mayella's testimony Mr. Gilmer like last time asked her to tell what happened in her own words asking open ended questions and attempting to develop trust with the jury which is soon vanquished after Atticus's cross examination on Mayella. However one thing that Mr. Gilmer really played up on was the jury's protective instincts as a girl is claiming rape against a black man who they dislike and all they need to do is cast the black man guilty to protect the white girl who claims she was taken advantage of.  However during Atticus's cross examination he talked to her softly at first even getting her to admit her father was a problem when he drank alcohol. Then he starts pretending his memory is faulty to get her to retell her testimony waiting for a mistake. The second he gets the opportunity his memory returns sharp as ever. He gets her to say once more that she was beaten badly on her left side by Tom Robinson and that he violently used both hands to choke her and then one more time he asked is this the man and then Tom Robinson stood up showing he was missing his left hand.
   This should completely throw the case out as she lied on one of the biggest points of her case on when she was injured and now the person she is accusing is proved to not possibly be able to do so. Yet purely because he is black it is still being considered and are trying to decide the case. Then when you get to Tom's case he tells the truth of what happened that night, his story directly contradicts Mayella and Bob's yet his had no holes poked in it unlike Bob and Mayella's story. His story is that he had gone by Mayella's house for a long time and usually each time would help her with a task around the house since the children played around and the dad was usually of drinking somewhere. So for around nine months he would go to her house and help her, but one night Mayella lured him into her home then shaked him off the chair throwing herself at him hugging and kissing him. She said she never kissed a man before but a negro will do, then her father saw and greatly outraged saw what happened, so Tom Robinson ran out of there and what I suspect happened is that she was beaten badly for it, and they blamed Tom to cover up what happened. Though Mr. Gilmer has absolutely no evidence against him he talks condescendingly towards him and really gets him when he asks why he kept going to her house and he said he felt sorry for her which got to the jury Gilmer suspects as he emphasized the point since a black man should not feel sorry for a white woman. After that Scout missed the rest of the cross examination since Dill kept crying.
   The most important thing left to be decided is the verdict. I think that Tom Robinson will be sentenced guilty. I think this because from Harper Lee's perspective as a writer it would really add a more serious tone to the book and really affect the reader. From a critical reader's perspective I think the same thing because Atticus really has the case in his grip up till Mr.Gilmer's cross examination and not only would it add a good twist, but it would be better for its time as in the 1930s that jury would almost certainly find a reason to vote an innocent black man guilty of raping a white woman. Rather than give us a happy ending it would be much better in providing us with the harsh reality of what would really happen and Tom Robinson really angered the jury since they look down on him and for him to look down on a white woman for them he might as well just spat at their wife. So if they vote him guilty for his "outrageous statement" they can at least reason with themselves and lie to themselves that it was because they believed Mayella Ewell to be telling the truth.