Why does Atticus ask Bob Ewell to write his name and what does the jury see?
Atticus has Bob Ewell write his name to prove he is left handed and the one who hit Mayella.
Atticus’s defense is based on the premise that Tom Robinson could not physically have attacked Mayella, and that there is no evidence that she was raped. There is evidence that she was attacked, but she was hit on the right side of her face. Atticus uses the evidence of her facial injuries to create reasonable doubt about who her attacker was.
Bob Ewell doesn't understand why he is being asked to write his name.
“You’re left-handed, Mr. Ewell,” said Judge Taylor. Mr. Ewell turned angrily to the judge and said he didn’t see what his being left-handed had to do with it, that he was a Christ-fearing man and Atticus Finch was taking advantage of him. (Ch. 17)
Atticus demonstrates that Tom Robinson’s left arm is useless. If he can’t use his...
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left arm, he can’t be the one who hit Mayella and probably isn’t the one who attacked her.
His left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shriveled hand, and from as far away as the balcony I could see that it was no use to him. (Ch. 18)
Atticus goes through a lot of trouble to show that Mayella was attacked by someone who was left-handed, and that Tom Robinson is not left-handed and does not have use of his left hand. Yes, he does use his right hand well. However, he is not the one who beat her up because she was beat up by a left-handed person.
Was Mayella raped? Atticus does not directly prove that she was not. He seems to prove that no one got a doctor for her, as you would think they would if they thought she had been raped. He also seems to prove that Bob Ewell has had an inappropriate relationship with his daughter. If she was raped, it was most likely Bob Ewell that did it. Either way, Atticus creates reasonable doubt. The jury can’t believe for sure that it was Tom Robinson. Of course, it makes no difference. He is black and she is white, so they convict.
On which page of To Kill a Mockingbird does Atticus reveal Bob Ewell is left-handed?
On pages 179 and 180 of the edition of Harper Lee's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, consulted for this purpose -- a paperback edition "Published by arrangement with McIntosh and Otis, Inc." -- Atticus Finch observes for the benefit of the jury in the rape trial of the African American defendant Tom Robinson that the father of Tom's accuser, Bob Ewell, is left-handed. Bob is a virulently racist and eternally bitter personification of 'poor white trash' who was clearly the individual who inflicted the wounds on his daughter Mayella that have been blamed on Tom. In Chapter 17 of Lee's novel, Atticus, attempting to defend his African American client in this racially-segregated society, seeks to implicate Bob Ewell for his daughter's injuries by demonstrating that Tom, whose left arm is crippled, could not have physically inflicted those wounds, but that Bob, who is left-handed, was the one most likely to have been guilty. In the following passage, Atticus tricks Bob into displaying his left-handedness:
“Would you write your name for us?” he asked. “Clearly now, so the jury can see you do it.”
Mr. Ewell wrote on the back of the envelope and looked up complacently to see Judge Taylor staring at him as if he were some fragrant gardenia in full bloom on the witness stand, to see Mr. Gilmer half-sitting, half-standing at his table. The jury was watching him, one man was leaning forward with his hands over the railing.
“What’s so interestin‘?” he asked.
“You’re left-handed, Mr. Ewell,” said Judge Taylor.
Having now established for the jury and for the judge that Bob Ewell is left-handed, Atticus will next, in Chapter 18, display for the courtroom Tom's infirmity while implicating Mayella Ewell in a conspiracy to frame Tom for a rape that didn't occur -- at least a rape that wasn't carried out by Tom. The wounds to Mayella's face are on the right-side, consistent with a beating meted out by somebody with the left-hand. Implication: Tom could not have committed the crime, and Bob almost certainly did.
Why is Mr. Ewell's left-handed signature significant in To Kill a Mockingbird?
Atticus is trying to demonstrate that Bob Ewell is left handed because Mayella’s injuries are on the right side of her face, showing that he is the one that hit her and not Tom.
During Tom Robinson’s rape trial, one of the first things that Atticus tries to establish is that Mayella Ewell was not raped at all. She was beaten up, but not raped. He also wants to show that her injuries were consistent with a left-handed person hitting her, because Tom Robinson could not have done it.
Atticus was trying to show … that Mr. Ewell could have beaten up Mayella. … If her right eye was blacked and she was beaten mostly on the right side of the face, it would tend to show that a left-handed person did it. (ch 17)
In fact, Atticus blatantly demonstrates that Bob Ewell is left-handed, the injuries on the right side of Mayella’s face were put there by someone left-handed, and Tom Robinson cannot use his left hand.
[Bob Ewell] swore out a warrant, no doubt signing it with his left hand, and Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses- his right hand. (ch 20)
This line of questioning is designed to bring into doubt the fact that the crime took place and the fact that Tom Robinson could have done it. Atticus wants to show that Tom Robinson did not attack Mayella, but her father did. He beat her when he caught her with a black man.
Unfortunately, despite the evidence to the contrary, the jury convicts Tom Robinson. This is because they are so steeped in racism that it is impossible for them to take the word of a black man over that of a white woman.