Dear Editor

I am Bob Ewell, a respectable memba of this community. Now, you may know that that boy Robinson done raped my daughter, and that Atticus Finch is gonna be defendin’ him in court. Now, I do know that the court appoints lawyers to the charged, but it would seem that Atticus is actually defending Robinson. I have no personal agenda with Atticus, but if he goes and tries to make Robinson out as innocent, there’ll be trouble.

Everyone in this here community is him anyway. I done heard a few nights ago about a lynch mob going down to the jail to get Robinson. I don’t know what happened, but we all know it weren’t real successful, but I also heard that non other then Atticus Finch was there covering Robinson hide.

Mr. Underwood, I know that you dislike these darkies as much as anyone else in this town. I know that the good people of Maycomb don’t want a felon running round with the rest of the fine folk.

Bob Ewell

Even though Mayella Ewell lies on the witness stand, she is still a sympathetic character, because throughout her testimony, you hear bits and pieces of her home life, her social life, and her relationship with her father. Some of the first questions Atticus asks her on the stand are about her life at home. He asks how many siblings she has, and she says seven. She says “It was hardly ever cold enough to wear shoes, but when it was, you could make dandy ones out of strips of old tires”. This means that they don’t even have enough money to afford shoes. “The welfare check was hardly enough to feed the family, and there was strong suspicions that papa drank it up anyway”. Need I say more? There are strong signs of neglect of the part of Mr. Ewell, but there are also signs of abuse, physical, mental, and sexual. On the part of physical, you can tell just by her injuries. She was beaten on her right side, which implies that she was hit by a left handed person. Toms hand is a crippled mess, BUT!!!! Guess what dominant hand Mr. Ewell (do I need to show him the respect of calling him mister? I think I should call him Robert or Bob…) is? Mr. Ew… I mean “Bob” is left handed, so it could mean that he could’ve beaten her. Plus since he is a heavy drinker, he could be a violent drunk. Next is Sexual. When Tom is on the stand, he says that Mayella came onto him. He said that she said “I’ve never kissed a grown man before. What my papa do to me don’t count.”ß Let me get this out of the way…EWWW!!  Anyway, just that phrase, that maybe slipped out in heat of the moment, but that phrase could be a sign of some kind of sexual abuse. Finally, we have mental. She could become mentally abused due to the other 2 types, she is also abused because of this: it doesn’t seem that Mayella is doing this all her own, that she wants to be in court and put Tom, a more then likely innocent man, in jail. She is more like a puppet, and Bob Ewell is pulling the strings. She is lying in fear of her father, of being beaten or molested or other horrible, gross things. If it was any other kid, it would mess them up bad.