Kelso High School

1. Kelso High School English Department

2. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

3. Chapters Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One– Learning Intentions • Plot Summary / Key Incidents • Structure • Characterisation – Jem Finch • Characterisation – Atticus Finch • Characterisation – Bob Ewell • Characterisation – MayellaEwell • Characterisation – Tom Robinson • Theme - Prejudice and Intolerance • Theme – Growing Up • Theme – Innocence • Symbolism

4. Plot Summary / Key Incidents • Chapters 16-21 Summer 1935 • The trial starts and the children sit in the black people’s gallery. • Heck Tate and Bob Ewell testify. • Mayella Ewell testifies. • Tom Robinson gives evidence. • Scout and Dill learn the truth about Dolphus Raymond. • The jury finds Tom Robinson guilty.

5. Structure • Novel divided into two sections , but could easily have been three sections. • Natural break after Chapter 21 when trial ends. • Chapter ends with all the black people in the gallery rising to their feet in a powerful gesture of silent respect because as Reverend Sykes tells Scout, “Your father’s passin’.”

6. Characterisation – Jem • He is clearly upset by the verdict “his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between them”.

7. Characterisation - Atticus • We find out that he did not choose to defend Tom Robinson, he was appointed to. • Atticus is respectful to everyone. He calls Mayella “Ma’am” and she assumes that he must be mocking her because she isn’t used to politeness. • He is respected by the black community because he did his best to defend Tom even though the verdict was known before the trial started, “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin’”.

8. Characterisation – Bob Ewell • Portrayed negatively. • He does not care for his family and lets them live “ like animals”. • It is hinted that he is abusive towards his daughter. • It seems likely that the whole idea of the accusation against Tom came from him after he saw what Mayella was up to. HE IS ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE FOR TOM’S DEATH. • He is cocky and unpleasant in the witness box, lying confidently and using coarse and racist language. Quotation Homework (Chapter 17)

9. Characterisation – Bob Ewell • Bob Ewell is looked down upon by the townspeople “MaycombEwells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin”. • He is arrogant, lazy and an abusive fool, but the fact that even he has the power to destroy an innocent man is a sad reflection on the racist world of Maycomb.

10. Characterisation – MayellaEwell • Pitiable. Reader does feel some sympathy. • She is portrayed as a victim – her father beats her and possibly molests her while she has to deal with unhelpful siblings. • She is not used to being treated politely and thinks Atticus is mocking her when he calls her “Ma’am”. • “It came to me that Mayella must have been the loneliest person in the world”. • “Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean and I was reminded of the row of red geraniums in the Ewell yard”.

11. Characterisation – MayellaEwell • However, as she continues to testify we feel less sympathy. • She is rude to Atticus and finally refuses to speak to him at all. • She always refers to Tom Robinson as “nigger” and clearly thinks that she had the right to order him to do odd jobs for her. • Tom tells the court that Mayella said that she had never kissed a grown man before and “might as well kiss a nigger”.

12. Characterisation – MayellaEwell • Her true character is revealed by her final outburst: “ That nigger yonder took advantage of me an’ if you fine fancy gentlemen don’t wanta do nothin’ about it then you’re all yellow stinkin’ cowards, stinkin’ cowards, the lot of you”. • Our final impression of Mayella is that she, despite being a victim herself, inflicts worse cruelty on others. She is prepared to destroy Tom Robinson in order to cover her shame.

13. Characterisation – Tom Robinson • The reader should pity him. • His honesty and goodness render him supremely moral. • He is hardworking and honest and has enough compassion to make the fatal mistake of feeling sorry for Mayella, “I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more than the rest of them”. • He is measured in his speech. He challenges the white characters’ stereotypes of a black man because he is thoughtful and polite. He feels uncomfortable about having to repeat bad language in court and says, “It’s not fittin’ for these folks, chillun’ to hear”. • Mayella’s advances towards him are completely unwelcome, but he tries to be as gentle as possible with her, “didn’t wanta push her or nothin’”.

14. Characterisation – Tom Robinson • He doesn’t say anything bad about the Ewells, even after he hears the lies they tell in court. • The fact that Tom is portrayed as a decent man but still found guilty, shows how people can be blinded by racial prejudice and the terrible effects this can have.

15. Theme: Prejudice and Intolerance • No matter what evidence is presented at the trial, the racist jury would never, under any circumstances, acquit a black man accused of raping a white woman: “ I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favour of a coloured man over a white man” • The jury are prepared to believe the word of nasty Bob Ewell over decent Tom Robinson. • There is even segregation in the court room, “ The Coloured balcony ran along three walls”.

16. Theme: Prejudice and Intolerance • Mr. Gilmer is prejudiced and disrespectful in his cross-examination of Tom and this upsets Dill, “ The way that man called him ‘boy’ all the time and sneered at him an’ looked around at the jury every time he answered”. • Mr. Gilmer is clearly prejudiced. He believes Tom must be lying, must be violent, must lust after white women – simply because he is black.

17. Theme : Prejudice and Intolerance • The fact that this case has even come to trial clearly conveys prejudice and intolerance: “ She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man”. • The verdict is a clear sign of prejudice and intolerance: “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favour of a coloured man over a white man….” …… “Guilty… guilty… guilty…guilty”.

18. Theme – Growing Up • Jem understands the finer points of the trial and the workings of the court and law in a way that Scout does not. • From time to time during the five trial chapters he explains to her what is happening.

19. Theme : Innocence • Jem has grown up, but he is still in some respects innocent and naïve. • He still believes the world is fair and that the verdict of the trial will be obvious. • When Jem says, “We’ve got him,” after Bob Ewell is shown to be left-handed, the reader knows better. We know that Atticus like Mrs Dubose in her battle with morphine is “licked’ before he begins. • The innocence of childhood dies for Jem, Scout and Dill when they realise that the adult world is often a cruel and unjust place.

20. Theme: Innocence • Tom Robinson was also innocent about the ways of the Ewells – he felt sorry for MayellaEwell and tried to help her, but she accused him of rape. He was probably the only person who had ever been kind to her. • He was also innocent about the way people would judge him for pitying a white person, “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’ Mr Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling…but the damage was done. Below us, nobody liked Tom Robinson’s answer”. People don’t like the fact that he admits feeling sorry for Mayella when he’s on trial. • He didn’t rape MayellaEwell, but is still found guilty. Mayella and Bob Ewell are guilty of lying. However, because they are white, their word is believed over Tom Robinson.

21. Symbolism : The Trial • Though the trial targets Tom Robinson, in another sense it is Maycomb that is on trial. • Atticus eventually loses the case, but he successfully reveals the injustice of a prejudiced society that confines blacks to the ‘Coloured’ balcony and believes the word of a despicable, ignorant man like Bob Ewell over the word of a decent black man like Tom Robinson. • In the courtroom, Atticus loses. In the mind of the reader justice and the white community lose.

22. Symbolism – The Mockingbird • The title of the novel is really important. • Mockingbirds represent the innocence of people like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson who are persecuted even though they do no wrong and only try to help others.

23. Symbolism: The Mockingbird • Like the mockingbird, Tom and Boo should be protected and cared for. Instead they are hunted down by the mob. Tom is persecuted by the jury, Boo is persecuted by the children and by the town gossips. • With its verdict the jury has killed “the mockingbird”, which symbolises the gentle, harmless creature like Tom, but also human values and justice itself. • Justice is “killed” when the jury follow their own prejudices and ignore the true evidence. • The jury does not value these fragile things because they are racist and prejudiced.

24. Success Criteria : Chapters Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One • Plot Summary / Key Incidents • Structure • Characterisation – Jem Finch • Characterisation – Atticus Finch • Characterisation – Bob Ewell • Characterisation – MayellaEwell • Characterisation – Tom Robinson • Theme - Prejudice and Intolerance • Theme – Growing Up • Theme – Innocence • Symbolism

25. Chapters Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty One Analysis The End!!