To Kill A Mockingbird blog post number four
The setting of this section is mainly the court house. The court case about Tom Robinson. The case is just about to start at this point and Jem, Dill, and Scout are about to try and find themselves a place to sit to watch the case.
As Jem, Dill, and scout are waiting for the massive crowd of people to get inside the court house. After everyone is inside the court house a man leads them to a place in the balcony where only African American people are allowed to sit to watch the case take place. In this part of the court house whites can sit anywhere but African Americans are only able to sit in the balcony.
The case starts and mayella gets called to the stand and Atticus examines her and asks her a series of questions. He tries to find the truth which later in the book you find out he does find the truth. As Atticus asks more and more questions mayella gets more and more tense as if she is lying and she is trying to hide it.
After a while Mayella refuses to answer anymore questions but there is a passage from the book that everyone should know “the witness swallowed hard. She reached up an’ kissed me ‘side of th’ face. She says she never kissed a grown man before an’ she might as well kiss a [n word]. She says what her pap do to her don’t count.”
This passage is important because it is basically is telling Tom that her father does sexually abuse her but she is so brain washed that she doesn’t see that it is wrong. Atticus starts his closing arguments and as he is doing so Calpernia walks into the court room.
As of this point in the story the mood and or tone of the book is from Atticus the mood would be satisfactory because he feels he has won the case. From tom Robinsons point of view it would probly be relief because he feels he won’t be getting convicted. But from mayella she probly feels angry or sad that she is caught in a lie that she can’t take back.
