Journal #10: To Kill a Mockingbird

In this final portion of the book, I don’t find myself on pins and needles anymore. The trial is over, the verdict is made, and there’s no more fighting left. Except of course, there is, in Bob Ewell’s mind. Although the jury has made its decision that Mayella was telling a true story, the true information that Atticus revealed during the trial ruined Bob’s reputation-- in reality, Bob is nothing but a poor, lying, and cruel father that no one will ever trust again. Bob himself sets out to pick a fight with Atticus without the court as a medium when he spits in Atticus’s face. Atticus, civil as ever, however, always chooses his battles and in this situation ignores Ewell. Jem, on the other hand, is extremely caught up on the evils of Bob Ewell and society and is crushed by the verdict of the trial. Much of the rest of the book describes Scout’s life as she tries to live with a brother whose personality seems to have disappeared. She compensates by focusing her attention on pleasing her Aunt Alexandra and “becoming a lady.”

Aunt Alexandra’s attitude also changes following the trial. She now seems more sensitve to the family-- especially when Tom Robinson is killed for attempting to escape prison. Alexandra, however, sees it that it’s not necessarily Bob Ewell’s fault, he is just an uneducated, evil man that will do anything for revenge. Aunt Alexandra’s prediction about Ewell is correct; he breaks into Judge Taylor’s house and slurs at Helen Robinson (the widow of Tom) every day on her way to work as she passes by the Ewell property. Ewell’s most sinister act of revenge occurs on the night of Halloween. The school is having a pageant which Scout is a part of. On the way to and from the pageant, Scout and Jem walk in pitch darkness, but their previous fears of walking past the Radley house, especially at night, have left them. Scout even comments, “Boo Radley was the least of our fears.” They were not only hardened by the trial, but they had more important things to worry about. Bob Ewell had been bothering nearly everyone it seemed but Atticus himself. Sabotage was inevitable. And sure enough, on the way back from the pageant on Halloween night, Scout and Jem were attacked by Bob Ewell. It’s hard to decide which is more shocking: that Bob Ewell, in the darkness, stumbled, fell on his weapon, and killed himself while attacking the Finch children, or that Boo Radley came to the Finch children’s rescue and saved them from their demise. In reality, Bob Ewell didn’t fall on his knife-- Boo stabbed him. The police officer chooses to hide the truth to protect Boo. Putting him on trial in the public eye would be like killing an innocent mockingbird that never did any harm to anyone. The title of this book, however, primarily refers to innocent Tom Robinson.