Bob Ewell Character Analysis

The racist patriarch of the Ewell family, which lives behind the Maycomb dump. His aggressive, drunken behavior causes people in Maycomb to give him a wide berth and allow him to break the rules, as they understand that it’s useless to try to force his children to stay in school and it isn’t worth it to punish him for hunting out of season. In terms of his hunting, Mr. Ewell gets away with this in part because, though his family relies on relief checks, he spends most of the money on alcohol. When Scout first sees Mr. Ewell in court, she thinks of him as being like a bright red, cocky rooster. He’s vulgar, rude, racist, and is very obviously uneducated, which makes him look even less believable than he already does. During the trial, Atticus makes the case that Tom Robinson didn’t rape Mayella; rather, Mr. Ewell beat Mayella and blamed Robinson when he caught Mayella touching Robinson. In fact, it’s heavily implied that Mr. Ewell has sexually abused Mayella in the past, as she told Robinson that she’d never kissed a man because “what my papa do to me doesn’t count.” Even though Mr. Ewell and Mayella win their case, Mr. Ewell sets out to get revenge on everyone who made him look like a fool in court. In addition to harassing Helen Robinson and spitting in Atticus’s face, this culminates in him attempting to murder Scout and Jem on Halloween night. Mr. Tate insists that Mr. Ewell fell on his knife (in truth, Arthur Radley killed him to save the children), telling Atticus to let the killing slide so that Mr. Ewell can pay for the pain, suffering, and ultimate death he brought on Tom Robinson.