Mayella's Cross Examination

   From the bottom of page 242 is where Mayella's cross examination starts. So far, Mayella has been very emotional in her direct examination. She even expressed her feelings towards Atticus as she said that she was afraid of him. She was afraid that Atticus would do her like he did to her father, Bob Ewell. During the cross examination of Mayella, Atticus slowly builds up the case. Towards the end of the cross examination, Atticus proves probably the most important and the biggest piece of evidence in the case. In my opinion, I think that Atticus is a very intelligent man, and he is an amazing lawyer. It seems to me like he is very patient, and he doesn't right away try to criticize the witness. In the beginning of the cross examination, Atticus has a comforting and calm tone by the way he speaks. However, towards the end of the cross examination, Atticus all of sudden starts shooting questions at Mayella that she does not even reply an answer. As a lawyer, Atticus plays smart and is tricky. He asks questions that Mr. Gilmer can object. However, Mr. Gilmer doesn't object, and through this, Atticus gets to prove many facts and pieces of evidence to the jury. Through his tactics and tricks used in the cross examination, Atticus makes it clear that Mayella is indeed living a rough life. Mayella is the victim of poverty and ignorance. She doesn't have any friends nor does she knows what one is, and most importantly, she doesn't know what the word "love" means. She thinks that Atticus is making fun of her even though he was just being polite and courteous. Through how he smartly conducts this cross examination, Atticus gets Mayella to admit that Bob gets violent when she drinks, and Bob overall may have been the one who beat Mayella. Bob is a bad father. Most importantly, Atticus proves that Tom Robinson could not have been the person who beat her since his left arm is crippled, and the person who beat Mayella is left-handed based on where her injuries were, on the right side of her body.

When Atticus starts to rain questions on Mayella, and she doesn't reply 

   In my opinion, Atticus is incredibly intelligent and smart. When conducting his cross examination, he does not right away criticize the witness and try to prove them wrong. He starts off slow, and towards the end, he starts going for the witness. He slowly builds up. He plays smart, and he uses clever tricks that I could not have ever thought of. He manages to trick Mr. Gilmer to the point that Mr. Gilmer did not even object to any of his questions during the cross examination of Mayella. Through this, he got out the most important pieces of evidence. He started off with a calm tone. However, towards the end, he just started to fire at Mayella. He got the witnesses to admit so many pieces of evidence without them even knowing it. In my opinion, Atticus is truly intelligent and clever. He knows what he is doing during the cross examination, and he manages to trick others. He comes up with so many clever tricks and ways to prove the witness and the prosecution wrong. He is very smart, clever, and he knows what he is doing in the cross examination. However, he just doesn't show his plan and tatic right away.

Mayella's Direct Examination

Mayella got very emotional during the first par of her testimony. WIthin the first few minutes she had say a few words and was bawling her eyes out. Judge Taylor calms her down and we find out that she was crying because she doen want Atticus to trick her like he tricked her father, Bob Ewell. Eventually we learn what happens on the night of Mayellas rape. Mayella says that she asked Tom to help her and that she would give him a nickel if he helped her. She then says that when she goes to get the nickel, Tom goes after her and then chokes and rapes Mayella. She says that shw fought back as hard as she could, but was not strong enough.

One thing that really surprised me was why she was crying. Mayella was crying over a lawyer, not even the fact that she had been raped and was in the same room as the man who raped her. She also is 19 and is crying over the fact that a lawyer has tricked her father. Mayella also did not go into much detail on what happened on the night of the rape, which is understandable if she did infact get raped. However I think that it is strange that she didn't seem very upset about the fact that she was sitting across from her rapist.

Mayella's Direct-Examination

After Bob Ewell's testimony, the clerk calls in Mayella Ewell, Bob's oldest child and daughter. Before the trail starts, Mayella starts to accuse Atticus of badgering her father into accusing that he is left handed, and she fears that Atticus would do the same to her. I do agree with Mayella here. I do know for sure that Atticus will not badger Mayella in any way, but I do understand her frustration. If she knows her father was badgered by this lawyer, she will be more careful and emotional when she gets to the witness stand. After she accuses Atticus for badgering Bob, she starts getting emotional. Since she did this, the jury now has a sense of protection over Mayella, and they are more inclined to find Bob guilty than innocent.

When Mayella starts talking, we find out that her story is not like Bob's story. This is how it goes: on the day of the crime, November 21, Mayella was relaxing on the Ewells' porch, and she saw Tom Robinson wall down the street. She called him over when she offered up a nickel for his services. Tom accepted the nickel, and when they got into the house, Tom knocked her over and started choking her, and then he raped her. After Bob entered the house to "save" his daughter, Tom ran away from the scene. She never mentioned a beating in her direct-examination, she was only choked and raped. This only furthers the fact that the rape was just a make believe story to cover up Bob's potential beating of Mayella. This is the beauty of the case-in-chief. There are so many witnesses with so many different views on the incident, and sometimes they can accidentally reveal the true nature of the story.This is what Mayella just did. Atticus built up his case so much during the testimonies of Mr. Tate and Bob Ewell, that it only took one more witness to destroy the credibility of the prosecution. Mayella accidentally revealed it wasn't Tom that beat her, it was someone else.

Mayella's Direct Examination

The beginning of chapter 18 starts off with Mayella's direct examination. In her direct examination, Mayella says that her father had sent her to chop up the chiffarobe in the yard, but Mayella wasn't feeling strong enough, so she asked Tom, who was walking by her house at the time, to help her. Mayella went inside to get a nickel for Tom, for helping her. While she was getting a nickel for Tom, she claims that Tom went inside the house and raped her.  She claims that Tom started choking herself. He the says that  he threw her on the floor and took advantage of her there. Some parts of Mayella's side of the story do not make sense and some parts are not the same with Bob's story.

One example of Meyella's story not matching up with Bob's would be when she says that Tom left, and next thing she knows her father was standing over her asking who had done it. Bob tells us that he clearly saw Tom Robinson rape his daughter, and that he saw Tom leave through the front door when he was entering through the back. One thing that does not match up is that Bob had said clearly that he saw who was raping his daughter. However, in Mayella's part of the story, Bob runs in asking who did it. In Bobs part of the story, he never said anything about asking Mayella who raped her, and why would Bob ask Mayella who had raped her if he was positive it was Tom Robinson. We get more information on Mayella's injuries, because Mayella explains that she fainted after her father came in the house and asked her who had raped her, and after she was raped. This, again, raises the question as to why no doctor was called. Mayella should have been taken to a doctor immediately since she fainted because her injuries were so bad.

Mayella puts a lot of emotion during her direct examination. We see her cry several times, sometimes because of the rape, and even one time because she was afraid of Atticus. I think that the emotion that Mayella puts into this testimony will help her side persuade the jury. I think that Mayella was being too dramatic about her breakdowns. For example, she cried just because she was afraid of Atticus. Even Jem says that Mayella has enough sense to make the judge feel sorry for her, which could help the case. I am excited to hear Tom's part of the story, because I think Tom's story will most likely be the actual story of how things happened, since it is pretty obvious that Mayella and Bob are lying in their testimonies. I want to see how different the stories are, and if it has something to do as to why the Ewells changed their stories in the first place. Were the Ewells in danger of something happening to their family, did they simply make this up just to accuse an African American?

Mayella Blog Post

In the beginning of chapter 18 Mr.Gilmer asks Mayella to tell the jury what happened on November twenty-first of last year.She says that she was on the front porch and that she wasn't doing anything,but then Judge Taylor asks her to be more specific o to tell what really happened.She then started to cry  and the judge said to her not to be ashamed ,it was funny how she pointed at Atticus and said that she was afraid of him.She then says that she doesn't want Atticus to treat her like he did to her dad Bob Ewell.She get asked a few questions like how old is she,she gets told to sit straight and tell what happened.She said that she was going to give Tom Robinson a nickel and she said  that she went to the house and she said that's where he began to attack her.She said that she was fighting him back and she screamed as loud as she could.She said she doesn't really remember what happened and said when she woke up she saw Mr.Tate,at the end she gets asked if she fought back and she said yes and gets asked if he really took advantage of her.

In my opinion I think that Mayella is lying because if she fought back wouldn't Tom Robinson also have bruises on his body.The reason why I think this is because when we talked about hitting someone on the face with a hand,someone hit her with a left hand.And I think that Atticus may do the same thing with her to make her look like a liar which in my opinion she is.Plus when she says she doesn't remember she is just lying because she may not know what else to say.Since it is Atticus turn to ask her questions I hope he test her hand too just like he did with Bob Ewell.Her story didn't quite match with Bob's story because she said when she woke up her dad was there and Bob said he was an eyewitness,he was there watching it.Both testimony's don't add up,what do you think,and I hate how she kept crying when she was giving her testimony and funny how she was scared of Atticus.Overall it's obvious that she is hiding something like we all know her dad could of done it since he drinks a lot.

Ewell's Testimony

   Bob Ewell's testimony had some information, none at all proveable however. He did not take his child to the hospital for severe injuries or atleast trauma. He claims he was an eye witness though one and I can not stress this enough HUGE POINT is that Mayella Violet claims she was on the porch when this happened. Though Bob Ewell says that he saw it through the window and got tangled in the fence. This is a really big point since their is no evidence all we have is their word on what happened and with a major detail like this contradicting each other, it can ruin all of the witnesses credibility and Atticus already has some evidence to bring doubt in the jurors mind much more that the criminal is left handed and left handed folks are much rarer than right hands.

Mayella when she contradicted Bob Ewell.

   However since it is a case of a black man against a white family even if they are the trash of the city still are white and hold a huge power over black people. Though they do not even need proof to win this case. Mr. Gilmer knows all he needs to do is stir up enough motion to which the jurors have to vote guilty. He wants to invoke their protective fatherhood instincts. Thats all he needs to win which really shows just how big a role emotion and racism can play in a case in the 1930s, even though in a perfect system they would not matter yet thats the only reason Mr. Gilmer will probably win.

Mayella and Bob's Testimonies

Mayella's testimony talked about Tom Robinson advancing her, after she had asked him to cut up an old chifferobe for a nickel. What is a chifferobe anyways, it is an combines a long space for hanging clothes with a chest of drawers. Since, Tom was strong, Mayella had asked him to chop the chifferobe up. Also, something that stood out to me in her testimony was, Mr. Tate helped Mayella up to her feet. She was laying on ground for the entire time while her father was getting the sheriff. Mayella was clearly injured, and she had to wait for the sheriff to show up. I find it stupid that she had to wait that long to be helped up from the floor

When was the chifferobe in Bob's testimony. All he said was that he was getting chopping would out in the woods, he never said anything about the chifferobe. This is a little weird, since that could be a big piece to mention, because that was the reason why he left for wood. Also, why didn't Bob help his daughter up? He decided to leave her on the ground for a while he went to get the sheriff. That doesn't make sense to me, why wouldn't you at least help her to a chair or something. Something in their testimonies that doesn't match up, and it is not making sense, maybe it is the start for something that Atticus can break down. I think that Atticus might be able to catch all of them in a lie!