Skip to main content

How is Mayella's testimony different from her father's testimony in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In Bob Ewell's testimony, he claims that he had seen Tom Robinson "ruttin" (having sex or sexually assaulting) on Mayella. He claims that he saw Tom but was too worried about Mayella to run after him. But in Mayella's testimony, she claims that when her father found her, he was asking who had done it (who had assaulted her). So, in his testimony, he claims to have seen Tom and Mayella together. He is clear about this. But Mayella says that Bob immediately started asking who had "done it." This is perhaps the biggest difference in their stories about what had happened. This is a red flag indicating that one of them (or both) is lying. 


Mayella's testimony tells us (the readers) and the jury more about her home life.We also learn more about her relationship with Tom. When Atticus questions her, she first says that she's never asked Tom for help before. Then she says she might have asked him for help before. Mayella gets flustered and continues to contradict herself. She says Tom didn't hit her, then she says he did. Her testimony is more inconsistent than Bob's. She is more emotional and this is because of the pressure she feels to lie for her father in front of the entire town. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more