The Ewell Residence in To Kill a Mockingbird

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.