The Ewell Residence in To Kill a Mockingbird :: Kill Mockingbird essays

The Ewell Residence in To Kill a Mockingbird In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee gives us a very detailed description of Robert Ewell, his family, and how he lives. A good example is the passage in which Robert Ewell testifies in the Tom Robinson Trial. This is a description of the Ewell's home as well as an insight into the Ewells themselves. We learn what kind of a father Robert is and the kind of life into which he has forced his eldest daughter, Mayella. We also see how the county of Maycomb cruelly discriminates against the black community even though they are more respectable than people like the Ewells. Lee uses such detail in the account of the Ewell cabin because the best way to understand the Ewells is to understand how they live. For example, she states, "The cabin's plank walls were supplemented with sheets of corrugated iron, its general shape suggested it's original design: square, with four tiny rooms opening onto a shotgun hall, the cabin rested uneasily upon four irregular lumps of limestone. Its windows were merely open spaces in the walls, which in the summer were covered with greasy strips of cheese cloth to keep out the varmints that feasted on Maycomb's refuse." This description paints a very vivid picture of the cabin and also tells a little bit about the Ewells themselves. From this we can infer that the Ewells took very little (if any at all) pride in their home and it's appearance. Later in the passage Lee adds, "What passed for a fence was bits of tree limbs, broomsticks and tool shafts, all tipped with rusty hammer heads, shovels, axes and grubbing hoes, held on with pieces of barbed wire." By now it is apparent that the only household repairs the Ewells make are with things they find at the dump. The image Lee is trying to form of these people is made very obvious by her use of details. The passage also gives quite a bit of insight into Mr.Ewell himself. For example, Lee states, "The varmints had a lean of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a thorough gleaning every day^Å" This statement informs us that the Ewells main source of revenue is form the town dump.