Lesson Title: Can I Get a Witness?
Course and Grade: Sophomore English, 10th
Generalization: The main idea here is to get a good sense of what evidence is being brought out in the trial and to
understand stereotypes (versus the realities) and whether the characters in the novel are stereotypes or are defying
stereotypes.
Learning Targets:
Facts: the facts of the case so far and the conclusion that Bob Ewell beat up Mayella after he caught her coming on
to Tom Robinson; also, the definition of ‘stereotype.’
Materials: Lesson plan with discussion questions, copies of the book.
Context and Purpose: “Today our goal is to understand the evidence as it’s brought out in this trial, and towards
what conclusions the evidence would direct us. Let’s discuss Chapter Eighteen.”
Instruction: Discuss Chapter Eighteen.
Closure: Thank students for discussion and remind them of the homework.
HW: “Read Chapter Nineteen tonight.”
Discussion Questions for Chapter Eighteen of To Kill a Mockingbird
How is Mayella’s hygiene obviously different from her father’s? (179)
She at least tries to keep clean.
As Mr. Gilmer is questioning Mayella, she seems to be afraid. Judge Taylor asks Mayella what
she’s scared of. She points to someone. Who is she supposedly afraid of? (179)
She seems to be afraid of Atticus.
What does Mayella say she asked Tom Robinson to come inside and do for her, for a nickel, on
the night of November the twenty-first? (180)
Bust up a chiffarobe.
What are some of the details about what Mayella claims happened next? (180-181)
She says she turned around and before she knew it he was up on her, got her around the neck,
swore at her, she fought and hollered, he hit her repeatedly, and then the next thing she knew her
father was standing over her asking who had done it, and she then fainted. The next thing she
claims to remember after that is Mr. Tate helping her up off the floor and over to the water
bucket.
When Atticus cross-examines Mayella, why does Mayella assume Atticus is making fun of her?
What does this reaction tell us about her life? (181-182)
Atticus calls her Miss Mayella, and Ma’am. She assumes he’s mocking her because no one has
ever called her Miss or Ma’am in her entire life. No one has ever treated her with courtesy or
respect.
Through a series of questions, Atticus gets Mayella to describe what her life is like at home.
What is the Ewells’ home life like? (183)
Their welfare relief check is not enough to feed the family (Bob Ewell drinks up most of it), he
abandons his family for days at a time, they haul their own water for washing and have to keep
themselves clean (if they do choose to keep clean), and younger children always have colds and
ground-itch, and with two members of the family (Bob and Mayella) reading and writing Bob
feels there is no need for any of the rest of the children to go to school or learn, he needs them at
home.
Why does Atticus want to build a picture of what the Ewells’ home life is like for the jury?
What is he trying to help them understand? (183)
Answers may vary, but may include that: Atticus wants to provide a context for them to
understand why Mayella was so desperate for some company that she came on to Tom (which
students would only know if they had already read Chapter 19), and to show that Mr. Ewell
doesn’t care about his kids and would have beaten her up.
How does Mayella react when Atticus asks her if she has any friends, and what does this reaction
tell us about her? (183)
She asks him if he’s making fun of her, which shows she doesn’t have any friends. She doesn’t
even understand the concept.
When Atticus asks Mayella if she gets along with her father, what does she reply, and what was
she about to say that she cuts off in mid-sentence? (183)
She was saying he does tolerable, except when … she was about to say, except when he’s been
drinking.
Mayella then looks at her father who is sitting up straight with his chair tipped against the railing,
and says, “Except when nothin’. I said he does tollable.” What has Bob managed to convey to
Mayella through his facial expression and body language to make her say this? (183)
Mayella’s father Bob is clearly communicating to her what he wants her to answer, and may well
be silently threatening her with his body language and facial expression to let her know that if
she doesn’t say they get along fine that later on he’ll punish her, probably with physical abuse.
Mayella is intimidated into saying what she knows he wants her to say, which is that they get
along.
Atticus then asks Mayella, “Except when he’s drinking?” so gently that Mayella does what?
(183)
She nods.
What does Mayella say when Atticus asks her if Bob has ever beaten her? (184)
She says, firmly, that her father has never touched a hair on her head in her life.
Do you believe her?
Answers may vary, but most students will say, ‘No.’
Atticus asks Mayella if she’d ever asked Tom Robinson inside the house before, and she initially
denies it. Then Atticus asks her if she’s sure, and this time she says … what? (184)
The second time, she says that she might have, there were several blacks around (though she uses
a racial slur).
What does this seem to imply about the way she views blacks?
To Mayella, they ‘all look alike,’ they’re interchangeable.
When Atticus asks Mayella if Tom Robinson choked and beat her about the face, what are some
of her responses, and what do these responses imply? (185)
She says at first she can’t remember if he did or not. Then she says yes she does remember, he
did hit her. Then she says again she can’t remember if he did or not because it all happened so
quickly. Her answers are inconsistent and unconfident. This points towards her dishonesty: she
is lying (and not very well).
When Tom Robinson stands up, what does everyone in the courtroom immediately notice about
his physical appearance? (186)
His left arm is a foot shorter than his right and dangles, limp, utterly useless.
How did his arm get that way? (186)
It got caught in the machinery of Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s cotton gin when he was a young man,
and was torn out by the roots. All the muscles came detached, and now it’s only hanging on by
the skin and maybe some ligaments. It stopped growing at that time, and that’s why it is a foot
shorter than the other arm. It stopped growing and is basically the size his arm was when he was
a young man.
Atticus points to Tom and asks Mayella, “Is this the man who raped you?” She says yes. Then
Atticus asks a one-word question: “How?” At that point, how does Mayella react to this
question? (186)
She gets enraged and insists that although she doesn’t know how he did it, he did it.
After realizing how impossible it would be for Tom Robinson to have blackened her right eye
with his right fist (the only hand he could have used), how does Mayella try to change her story a
little to make it more believable? (187)
She says that after he choked her, he hit her face with his right fist but she ducked and it glanced
off, and that’s why it bruised her right eye, not her left.
When Atticus asks Mayella if she tried to run, what does she say? (187)
She claims Tom slung her down and got on top of her so she couldn’t run.
Atticus asks Mayella a whole series of questions in rapid order, and her reply is always what?
(187)
Silence. She makes no answer.
What is Atticus’s final question to her in his series of rapid-fire questions? (187)
“Didn’t Bob Ewell beat you up?”
After Atticus asks Mayella all those questions, especially the one about her father beating her up,
Atticus looks like his stomach hurts. Considering how good of a man he is, and what he’s just
had to do, why does Atticus look like he’s in pain? (187-188)
He feels awful about having to do this to Mayella. He feels sorry for her and knows that her
father is controlling her. He knows she’s been a victim of terrible poverty, ignorance, and an
abusive father, and now he’s exposing all this in court and he feels awful about it. He’s shaming
and humiliating her. However, if he doesn’t do this, then Tom will die.
After Atticus sits down, what are Mayella’s final words to the court? (188)
Mayella says: “I got somethin’ to say an’ then I ain’t gonna say no more. That nigger yonder
took advantage of me an’ if you fine fancy gentlemen don’t wanta do nothin’ about it then you’re
all yellow stinkin’ cowards, stinkin’ cowards, the lot of you. Your fancy airs don’t come to
nothin’—your ma’amin’ and Miss Mayellerin’ don’t come to nothin’, Mr. Finch—” and then she
bursts into tears and says nothing more.