Chapter+17

__Summary__ Mr Gilmer questioned Heck Tate who tells what he knows about the night of November 21st. Mr Bob Ewell told him that his daughter Mayella had been raped and told him to go to the house. When he got there Mayella was found beaten up and she told him that Tom Robinson had raped her. Atticus checked both stories by crossing them over and they admit that no doctor was called, Atticus is told that Mayella’s bruises were on the right side of her face. After Tate left the stand Bob Ewell is called upon it. Bob and his children live behind the town garbage dump in a tin-roofed cabin with their yard full of trash. It isn’t known how many children live there, some say 6 others say 9. But there’s always 7 standing at the window at Christmas time when people are passing by. The only clean part of the yard is known to belong to Mayella. Bob tells the court that on the night of November 21st he was coming out of the woods when he heard Mayella screaming, when he got to the window of his house he looked in and saw Tom Robinson raping her. He ran around the house but wasn’t fast enough because Tom had already fled through the front of the house. Bob ran to the sheriff’s house and got him to go over. Atticus asks why no doctor was called his response was that there was no need and it was too expensive. Bob is asked to write his name and the jury see’s that he is left handed, and as a left handed person is more likely to have left the bruises on the right side of Mayella’s face.

__What are the main points in Heck Tate's evidence? What does Atticus show in his cross-examination of Sheriff Tate?__ The cross-examination shows that no doctor was called and that Bob spent a lot of time running around to get the sheriff and to go to the house.

__What do we learn indirectly of the home life of the Ewell family in this chapter?__ The Ewell family live behind the town garbage dump in a tin-roofed cabin with their yard full of trash. The clean part of the yard belongs to Mayella.

__What do you learn from Bob Ewell's evidence?__ From Bob Ewell’s evidence it reveals that Mayella was beaten up, she had a black eye, bruises coming on her arms and her neck had mark all around it.

__Why does Atticus ask Bob Ewell to write out his name? What does the jury see when he does this?__ Atticus asked Bob Ewell to write out his name so that he could find out if he could write with, and if he could actually write. As it was more likely that a left handed person would have beaten up Mayella.

__Quotes__ “Found her lying on the floor in the middle of the front room, one on the right as you go in. she was pretty well beat up, but I heaved her to her feet and she washed her face in a bucket in the corner and she said she was alright. I asked who hurt her and she said Tom Robinson.” “Well she was beaten around the head. There was already bruises comin’ on her arms.”