{"id":1400457,"date":"2017-11-24T11:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1400457"},"modified":"2022-04-11T14:40:37","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T18:40:37","slug":"blogging-to-kill-a-mockingbird-chapters-16-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/blogging-to-kill-a-mockingbird-chapters-16-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging <i>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/i>: Chapters 16 &#038; 17"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"701\" height=\"394\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/bloggingtkamMAIN_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1449120\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To catch up on Blogging To Kill a Mockingbird, \u00a0<a href=\"\/blog\/blogging-the-classics\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1395996\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click here<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have spent half my life watching reruns of&nbsp;<em>Law &amp; Order: SVU.<\/em>&nbsp;(The other half I have spent Googling things such as \u201chow fast does hair grow\u201d and \u201cI know pizza is bad for you, but like how bad?\u201d) So as someone who has watched Elliot Stabler kick down a door more times than I can count, I like to think I know a little something about The Law, and I will use this wealth of knowledge to guide us through the forthcoming trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now,&nbsp;<strong>Chapter 16<\/strong>&nbsp;is mostly just a lead-in to chapter 17, which is when the trial begins, but there are a couple things worth noting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Scout asks how Atticus can consider Mr. Cunningham a friend even after what happened the previous night. Atticus tells her that Mr. Cunningham is \u201cbasically a good man,\u201d he just \u201chas his blind spots along with the rest of us.\u201d The narrative presents Atticus as the novel&#8217;s moral compass, but I&#8217;m with Jem on this one:&nbsp;<strong>\u201cDon&#8217;t call that a blind spot,\u201d he says.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cHe&#8217;da killed you last night when he first went there.\u201d<\/li><li>Atticus then explains that what happened last night proves that&nbsp;<strong>\u201ca mob&#8217;s always made up of people.\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;Atticus says, \u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6a gang of wild animals&nbsp;<em>can<\/em>&nbsp;be stopped, simply because they&#8217;re still human.\u201d When Scout did what she did\u2014when she asked Mr. Cunningham about his entailment and made polite Southern small talk\u2014it forced Mr. Cunningham to feel shame. Mr. Cunningham is, after all, a human being, and he&#8217;s capable of recognizing that Scout, Jem, Atticus are human beings too. Tom Robinson is also a human being, but unfortunately that doesn&#8217;t occur to anybody.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Scout, Jem, and Dill go to the courthouse and wind up sitting in the balcony along with Reverend Sykes and the rest of Maycomb&#8217;s black residents. And with that, the trial begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DUN DUN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/tkamchapterbreak.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chapter 17<\/strong>&nbsp;opens with the sheriff Heck Tate&#8217;s testimony. Heck Tate tells the prosecutor what happened: one night, he received word from Bob Ewell that Tom Robinson had beaten and raped his daughter, Mayella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it&#8217;s Atticus&#8217;s turn to speak, he asks Heck Tate if a doctor was called for Mayella. Heck Tate&#8217;s response is pure confusion: \u201cIt wasn&#8217;t necessary, Mr. Finch. She was mighty banged up. Something sho&#8217; happened, it was obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently doctors can&#8217;t help you when you&#8217;re sick or hurt. They can only confirm that you are, in fact, sick or hurt. My parents always wanted me to be a doctor and let me tell you, if it were as easy as glancing at someone and being like \u201cYep, that looks like a stab wound if I ever saw one,\u201d I would have gone to med school in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, as I understand it, doctors have to do other stuff, like surgery. So I became an Internet writer instead, and here we all are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Atticus asks about Mayella&#8217;s injuries. Heck Tate says she was beaten on the left side of her face and had a black eye, and we get to spend a whole page trying to figure out of it was Heck Tate&#8217;s left or Mayella&#8217;s left before Heck Tate realizes that it would have been on Mayella&#8217;s right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scout is bored. So far, this has been nothing like an episode of&nbsp;<em>Law &amp; Order<\/em>. If this were an episode of&nbsp;<em>Law &amp; Order<\/em>, the defendant would have fired his attorney already and chosen to represent himself. Objections would have been made, withdrawals would have been issued, and the judge would have been&nbsp;saying, \u201cCounselor, control your client!\u201d after every interruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/lawandordertkam1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"362\"><br>Credit: NBC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then Bob Ewell is called to the stand. He cracks a few jokes before the judge shuts him down and tells him there won&#8217;t be any funny business in&nbsp;<em>his<\/em>&nbsp;courtroom. When the prosecutor asks Bob Ewell to describe what happened the night of the attack, Mr. Ewell causes such a stir with his description that the judge has to bang his gavel for a full five minutes to get everyone to settle down again. He warns them that he&#8217;ll clear the court of spectators if people can&#8217;t control themselves. SEE IF HE WON&#8217;T.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, Atticus gets up to question Mr. Ewell. He confirms that Mr. Ewell didn&#8217;t call for a doctor, and that Mayella&nbsp;was beaten around the right side of her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s when we get our first \u201cObjection!\u201d Atticus asks Mr. Ewell if he can read and write. The prosecutor objects, demanding to know what Ewell&#8217;s literacy has to do with the case at hand. The judge lets the question stand, but Atticus is on thin ice. Now we&#8217;re talking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Atticus gives Mr. Ewell a pen and asks him to demonstrate. Mr. Ewell does so, to general alarm. The judge stares at him and the prosecutor stands in his chair to get a better look. Turns out, Mr. Ewell is left-handed. As it was the right side of Mayella&#8217;s face that was bruised, it follows logically that a left-handed person could have done it easily. Jem whispers, \u201cWe&#8217;ve got him,\u201d but Scout thinks Jem is \u201ccounting his chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for me? All I can think is that this went right from&nbsp;<em>Law &amp; Order: SVU<\/em>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<em>Legally Blonde<\/em>&nbsp;in a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/tkamlegallyblonde1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"701\" height=\"353\"><br>Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NOTABLE QUOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Scout, Jem, and Dill ask Miss Maudie if she&#8217;s going to the courtroom to watch, she says no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cI am not. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dct&#8217;s morbid, watching a poor devil on trial for his life. Look at all those folks, it&#8217;s like a Roman carnival.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>THIS AND THAT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>One of&nbsp;<em>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>&#8216;s shortcomings is that it often treats violent, deep-seated racism as a minor character flaw. See: Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Underwood, both of whom \u201cdespise\u201d people of color but are otherwise, according to Atticus, \u201cgood folks.\u201d It&#8217;s the kind off cognitive dissonance we still see today.<\/li><li>While they&#8217;re walking to the courtroom, Scout and Jem see a group of biracial children. Scout asks how he can tell they&#8217;re \u201cmixed-race.\u201d Jem says \u201cyou just hafta know,\u201d and that \u201cone drop\u201d of \u201cNegro\u201d blood means you&#8217;re black. This was called the \u201cone-drop rule\u201d and became a legal mandate in the South when Jim Crow laws were passed. Google&nbsp;<strong>hypodescent<\/strong>\u2014it means we tend to categorize those of mixed race into the group considered to be socially subordinate.<\/li><li>We haven&#8217;t seen Mayella yet, but Scout says the only bright spot on the Ewells&#8217; property is a far corner where geraniums have been carefully planted. It&#8217;s rumored that these belong to Mayella.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DISCUSSION QUESTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the trial, Scout and Jem sit in the balcony\u2014the segregated part of the courtroom. Black men and women even stand to give them their seats. This seems to (subconsciously) mirror the way the narrative, throughout the story, allows the Finches to occupy a role that doesn&#8217;t belong to them\u2014the one where the Finches are painted as&nbsp;victims of a sort, when in reality the victims are people of color. Agree? Disagree?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Looking for the rest of our Blogging the Classics series? \u00a0<\/em><a href=\"\/blog\/blogging-the-classics\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"\/blog\/blogging-the-classics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Click here<\/em><\/a><em>, or you can check out \u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/mocking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>the SparkNote<\/em><\/a><em>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To catch up on Blogging To Kill a Mockingbird, \u00a0click here! I have spent half my life watching reruns of&nbsp;Law &amp; Order: SVU.&nbsp;(The other half I have spent Googling things such as \u201chow fast does   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[395,705,438,628,2335,23934,24363,23796,1387],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400457"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449138,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400457\/revisions\/1449138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}