In Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird, there are several things that concern Aunt Alexandra about Bob
Ewell's behavior.
readability="7">Angered...by his exposure on the witness stand,
Ewell makes threats to Atticus & others involved in the
trial...The first concern
may arise when Ewell gets fired from his WPA job—employment provided to people during
the Great Depression. He starts receiving welfare checks again and according to Ruth
Jones, the welfare lady...readability="6">Mr. Ewell openly accused Atticus of getting his
job. She was upset enough to walk down to Atticus' office and tell him about
it.Judge Taylor's house is
broken into, while the Judge is home alone, reading.readability="8">One Sunday night, lost in fruity metaphors and
florid diction, Judge Taylor's attention was wrenched from the page by an irritating
scratching noise.Thinking it
was his dog, he looks up to find himself alone, and investigating, he finds his back
door open. When his wife returns, the Judge is sitting in his chair with a shot gun in
his lap, reading.Ewell becomes visibly threatening when he
begins to follow Helen Robinson on her way to work as a cook at Link Deas' home. She has
gone out of her way each day to avoid the Ewell place because the Ewell children have
been throwing objects at her as she passes by. Deas goes by the Ewell house and hollers
in a threat to Bob to leave Helen alone, or Deas will have him arrested. The next day,
Helen walks past the Ewell place and no one throws anything at her. However Bob Ewell
follows her:readability="7">All the way...Helen said, she heard a soft voice
behind her, crooning foul
words.Helen calls Deas at
his store and Deas come back to speak to Ewell. Threatening him again, Deas threatens
Ewell, saying that if he bothers Helen again, Deas will "get you in on the Ladies' Law"
so he better leave Helen alone.It is also upsetting when
Ewell spits in Atticus' face. Atticus takes it well, simply wishing that Ewell wouldn't
chew tobacco—which makes it an especially nasty
experience.And after the children are attacked, Aunt
Alexandra feels partly responsible as she had a prophetic feeling about the children's
safety, and feels that perhaps she could have done something to prevent
it.
No comments:
Post a Comment