Summary Chapter 16

• the next day, Tom Robinson‘s trial begins
• the courtroom is overflowed with people including Miss Stephanie Crawford and Mr. Dolphus Raymond (who has children with a black woman)
• Miss Maudie refuses to go to the trial and compares it with a Roman carnival
• Jem, Scout and Dill sneak into the courthouse after everyone already entered it
• they only get seats in Reverend Sykes‘ balcony where all black people have to sit if they want to watch the trial
• Judge Taylor presides over the case; he is known for running his court rather informally

Summary Chapter 17

• Sheriff Heck Tate is questioned by the prosecutor Mr. Gilmer and he recounts that on November 21^st, Bob Ewell came to the police station and asked the sheriff to get to their house since his daughter Mayella had been raped
• Mayella was found with a lot of bruises and obviously, she was beaten up; she explained that it was Tom Robinson who did that
• Atticus asks the witness about whether a doctor had been consulted, but Heck Tate denies that and claims that the right side of Mayella‘s face was bruised
• Heck Tate ends his statement and Bob Ewell is called
• Bob Ewell and his family are charaterized
  
  • they live behind the town garbage dump in a cabin with a tin-roof, their yard is filled with trash
  • Ewell has a lot of children, the exact count is not quite clear
  • the only nice corner of the yard features geraniums; rumour has it that Mayella had planted them
• Ewell explains that on the night his daughter was raped, he was out in the woods looking for logs and was just about to return home when he heard the screams of his daughter
• he ran back home, looked through the window and saw that she was being raped by Tom Robinson
• Tom Robinson fled according to Ewell
• when Ewell made sure his daughter was okay, he ran to get the sheriff
• once again, Atticus asks why they didn‘t summon a doctor and Ewell explains that there was no need and that they don‘t have the money
• Atticus asks Bob to write down his name and the jury sees that Bob is left-handed
• someone left-handed is more likely to bruise the right side of Mayella‘s face than someone right-handed

Function

• trial as the most dramatic scene
  
  • trial not only targets Tom Robinson, but the whole town of Maycomb
  • trial will reveal the injustice of the Maycomb society: blacks have to sit in designated areas, people believe Bob Ewell without questioning over the honest Tom Robinson
  • Atticus loses the actual trial, but actually, the white community with its prejudice and hatred loses
• it is just logical, that Miss Maudie refuses to attend the trial and that the children sit with the black people
  
  • they are not swayed by the town‘s racist attitude and thus stand out against the other white people in the courtroom
  • in fact, Jem and Scout belong more to the black community than to the community of white children in the schoolyard who call them "nigger-lovers"
• obviousness of the unfairness of the trial
  
  • racist jury does not care about how much evidence is collected that argues against Tom Robinson being the rapist
  • reader knows the outcome of the trial already
  • Jem - still believing in concepts of fairness - thinks that Atticus will win the case because of his carefully dismantling of Bob Ewell‘s testimony and does not grasp the fact that Atticus‘ attempts are in vain
• although Bob Ewell is looked down upon by Maycomb society due to his lazyness, abusiveness and arrogance, he still has the power to devastate an innocent black man