Chapters 18-19: What were the inconsistencies of Mayella's testimony? How did your feelings for her change throughout the testimony?

When Mayella Ewell testified against Tom Robinson, what she said not only didn't match what her father had said earlier, but she even changed her own story when Atticus sneakily wove his way around her lies. When Atticus asked her if her dad was easy to get along with, if he was good to her, she said: "He does tollable, 'cept when-" (p. 208) stuttering when she realized that that would poke a hole in her testimony. The next page when asked if he ever beat her, she said: "My paw's never touched a hair o' my head in my life," (p. 209) although she looked uncertain. Another instance of this was still on that page; Atticus asked, "Was this the first time you asked him to come inside the fence?" (p. 209) She jumped, startled. When asked the same question again, she said, "I certainly did not!" Yet three lines later, she said that she might have.

Before her testimony, i thought that Mayella would be a small, gentle girl, who would be completely rocked by this trial and the guilt of false accusation. A girl delicate enough to raise Geraniums in the hell of her own backyard, keep them vibrant and colorful through every single hardship, but when she was first physically described, i knew that she wasn't anything like the miniature, caring, hopeful girl that I had guessed she was. But then why did Harper Lee include the detail of the Geraniums if she is the polar opposite of Hope? Why is there the light of hope in the backyard of the Ewells if there is no one to help it survive?

To me, it is quite obvious that this is a typical southern trial, weighted almost 100% towards the white person, and even though Atticus has a better case by miles, the all white, all poor, all prejudice jury is going to vote unanimously for the Ewells. Mayella realizes this, and to even further her victory, stutters as is scarred by the 'rape' that Tom Robinson committed. The men of the jury are the stereotype of southern men, piece of wheat in their teeth, straw hat, and overalls. This is how they were raised, and they are afraid to change their ways, for fear of rumors and gossip. This has left Maycomb country in a racist time period, and the ignorant views will never change.

This reminds me of a non-fictional case of murder, with a trial with a similar amount of inequality. The case of Emmett Till. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old black boy living in Money, Mississippi, when one day, while walking into a convenience store, whistled at a white woman. Two white men around 40, didn't like this one bit. They kidnapped and beat him, gouging out one of his eyes, then tying a cotton gin fan to his leg with barbed wire, shooting him, and throwing him to the bottom of a local river. After a one day trial, the men were found not guilty. When the book was written, Harper Lee knew that people would have heard the heart-wrenching stories of trials like this, so was that her intention? To write a novel about how black people cannot be protected by the law? was that the point she was trying to make?

Emmett Till Site:

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Emmett-Till-Defender24sep55.htm