Hello there. Today we continue looking at Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel is set in a southern state of the USA and takes a serious look at racial injustice and widespread hypocrisy in the society. Read it and enjoy it— and watch the movie if you can. As always, we have some helpful revision exercises to brush up your English A skills.

Read on now, and enjoy your CSEC English page.

ENGLISH B- To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee uses Part 1 of her novel to introduce us to the Maycomb community and the various social attitudes that prevailed in the Southern USA in the 1930’s, which is when the events in the novel take place. An important aspect of the society is the range of attitudes to race. When a white girl— Mayella Ewell—makes the false accusation that she was raped by a black man—Tom Robinson—those different attitudes to race take centre stage.

Lies and truth

Mayella’s story is that Tom Robinson raped her. She claims that she asked him to break up a chiffarobe for her, and she offered to pay him a nickel for the job. Her story is that when he entered the house, he overpowered her and raped her, even though she tried to fight him off.

The truth is that Mayella had frequently asked Tom to help her in various ways, and he had indeed broken up a chiffarobe for her—but that had been a year earlier. On this occasion she had asked him to come inside to help her with something, but that she had then thrown herself on him, desperately seeking love and maybe sex.

Bob Ewell, her father, had come in and discovered the pair, and had given Mayella a severe beating. Mayella then claimed that those same injuries had been inflicted by Tom.

The story that comes out is that Bob routinely abused nineteen-year-old Mayella both physically and sexually, that Mayella had no friends, and since Ewell’s wife was dead, Mayella had been responsible for her siblings and the home.

It was considered shameful for a white girl to have a relationship with a black man, and some story had to be made up to account for Mayella’s injuries— so the solution was for the Ewells to put the blame on Tom, knowing that in their society no one would believe the word of a black man over that of a white woman.

Tom’s impossible situation

Atticus is able to demonstrate to the court that Mayella’s injuries were inflicted by someone who was left-handed (and Bob Ewell is left-handed). He was able to demonstrate that a strong girl like Mayella could easily have resisted any advances from Tom, because Tom’s left hand hangs uselessly since he injured it badly in a machine. Atticus’s questioning exposes the fact that Bob Ewell had not sought medical assistance for his daughter, even though she was badly injured—a fact which tends to support the evidence that it was Bob, and not Tom, who inflicted the injuries.

However, although the evidence clearly points to Bob’s guilt and Tom’s innocence, the racist Southern society will not give him justice and find white folks guilty. Tom wants to tell the court that he felt sorry for Mayella, but society considered it insulting for a black man to speak in such a way.

The outcome

The jury takes quite a long time to come to a verdict—which causes Atticus to hope that maybe society is changing for the better—but despite the delay, they still find Tom guilty. Atticus intends to appeal the verdict, but Tom no longer has faith in the white man’s justice system, and while on exercise in the yard of the jail, he attempts to make a dash for freedom, and is shot dead while trying to climb the wall.

Bob is found innocent by a jury blinded by racial prejudice. He goes on to stalk Helen, terrifying her with his obscene threats as he follows her to work, and he attempts to murder Atticus’s children, in revenge for the humiliation he felt in court. When Boo Radley seizes Bob Ewell’s knife and fatally stabs him, we feel that at last justice has been done. We agree with Heck Tate that no court proceedings are necessary: Boo, the avenger, should be allowed to go free.

For you to do

Find examples in the novel of people in Maycomb who are NOT racist. How do they demonstrate their fair-mindedness?

REDUNDANCY

Redundancy occurs when a writer says the same thing in a different way. It’s annoying to the readers because it seems to insult their intelligence. See if you can spot the redundancy in these examples:

1. Our uncle owned the only pharmacy in the village, so he had the monopoly and anyone who wanted to buy drugs had to go to his store.

2. Because we were late for school, we asked the driver to accelerate

and increase his speed so that we would get there before the bell rang. 3. As children, we had enjoyed playing in the grounds of the

uninhabited old house where no one lived.

4. Nostalgically he went through the photographs, going back in his

mind with longing for those happy times in the past.

5. She left the room, absentmindedly leaving her spectacles on the

table, not realizing she had left them there.

6. It’s a thrilling movie that fills you with excitement as you watch.

DANGEROUS DANGLING PARTICIPLES!

Present participles in English all end in -ing (speaking, lifting, running); past participles end in -ed for regular verbs (cleaned, sorted, repaired)

When we begin a sentence with a participial phrase, we need to have, as the subject of the main clause, the person to whom the participle refers.

For example:

Having explained the method, our teacher…. (because it was the teacher who ‘explained’)

Holding the child’s hand, the police officer… (because it was the police officer who was ‘holding’)

If we don’t obey this rule, we can end up writing or saying something quite stupid. Here’s an example of what happens when people forget that rule. It actually came over BBC. Can you see what is wrong? How would you correct the sentence?

After failing a breathalyzer test, the two police officers attempted to arrest the driver.

CAUGHT IN THE SLIPS

Look at this sentence and see if you can spot the slip:

At our school’s Speech Day, the Headmaster stressed on the need for the business community to try to create more jobs for school-leavers.

Check below for the answer.

NO –ED PLEASE!

Some students forget to put the –ED when they are writing phrases like STEWED FISH, CURRIED CHICKEN, PARCHED NUTS. Please don’t be one of them!

Other students put –ED all over the place—“just in case”. Well that is not a good idea either.

Make a note of this rule:

You do not need to put –ED when you are using the following: COULD, WOULD, SHOULD, DID. These are followed by the simple form of the verb, not the past participle:

e.g. He could not clean. She could not mend. They should not park the car near the hydrant. I did not mind waiting.

So when do we use that –ED form or the past participle?

We use the past participle with the verbs HAS/HAVE and IS/ARE:

e.g. We have mended. The boy has repaired. The students have noted the information. The dogs are carried to the vet. The drain is blocked with plastic bottles. Doctors have treated more patients with Covid.

So what about after COULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE?

Good question! In those cases too we use the past participle:

e.g. You should have walked to school. I would have walked if I’d had time. We could not have repaired the wall without damaging the floor.

ANSWERS