Heck Tate is the sherrif who answered the
call from Bob Ewell the night Mayella was "attacked." Whenquestions Mr. Tate, he
focuses on information surrounding Mayella's injuries. He wants to drive home the points that no
one called a doctor and that Mayella's injuries occurred on the right side of her
face.
First, Atticus makes the point that if someone is attacked and harmed,
their first instinct would be to call a doctor to assess the damage. Tate says it was clear
Mayella was roughed up, and he didn't need a doctor to reinforce that observation. He could see
exactly where Mayella was injured.
Next, Atticus focuses on the injuries. He
wants to ensure that everyone in the courtroom understands where her injuries were and which
side of the face was injured. Atticus does this because he knows that if the injuries sustained
were on the right side of her face, that means the person who hit her was left-handed. This
evidence would exonerate Tom Robinson, because he has a deformed left arm. It would be
impossible for him to cause damage to the right side of anyone's face.
Lastly, Atticus asks about the injuries on Mayella's neck. Tate agrees that he saw
finger marks, as if someone were strangling her. This also reinforces the fact that Tom couldn't
possibly be the culprit. One of his arms is disabled and a foot shorter than the other. He
physically couldn't hold Mayella down and hit her.
Atticus reinforces these
points because he wants to make it clear to the jury that Tom Robinson could not physically
carry out this attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment