Bob Ewell

The father of eight, Bob Ewell, a white man, and his family live behind Maycomb's dump. Desperately poor, Ewell uses his welfare money to buy alcohol while his children go hungry. A drunken, mostly unemployed member of Maycomb's poorest family. In his knowingly wrongful accusation that Tom Robinson raped his daughter, Ewell represents the dark side of the South: ignorance, poverty, squalor, and hate-filled racial prejudice.
     
 
Activities Tasks
1
 Analyse the problems of the Ewell household. Discuss how these problems help explain the part Bob and Mayella Ewell play in the Tom Robinson case.
2
 As a Community Social Services Worker, you are to present your Case Report on the Ewell family. Write up fictitious notes on the Ewell family after visiting their home in response to a complaint from the school. Your report is to describe living conditions at the Ewell property in as factual a manner as possible. You should use information from the novel (for example, Burris Ewell doesn't attend school, has lice-infested hair) and where necessary may embellish that information with your own ideas.
 
     
   
To Kill a Mockingbird: An English web site unit devised and developed by George Marotous and Merren Ward.
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