Theme Of Irony In To Kill A Mockingbird

Irony can be when a person knows something another person does not know. To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee in 1960. To Kill A Mockingbird is a fictional story about a fictional town set in Maycomb, Alabama, around the Great Depression. The white people of Maycomb County believe themselves to be better than Tom Robison, the defendant in the trial, but the white people are the actual perpetrators of a lie.

If a majority of white people in town believed they were superior to the black people, then at least someone had to believe otherwise. That, someone, was Atticus Finch, a lawyer, who is also a white man, was chosen to defend Tom Robinson, who was a black man in the trial. The person who believed he was probably the most superior to the blacks was Bob Ewell was going against Tom. He even uses his daughter as part of it because he accuses Tom Robinson of raping his daughter Mayella. Bob Ewell was the biggest perpetrator of lies, he lied so much he did not think Atticus could have anything against him, he was wrong, that is when Bob Ewell experiences irony in the trial. In the trial, the first person to get questioned was Mr. Heck Tate who is the sheriff of Maycomb, County. They realized Mayella had bruises located on a certain side of her face. When Atticus questions Bob Ewell's (from pages 155 to 159 on the To Kill A Mockingbird pdf.) Atticus gets to a certain part during questioning he asks Bob Ewell if he can write his name. Bob Ewell could write his name and it turns out he was left-handed. Atticus also questioned Mayella and she was nervous to get questioned by him. During Atticus's questioning of Mayella, we find out that Tom Robinson is a cripple. Tom got his hand stuck in a cotton gin when he was a boy. The trial was over and Bob Ewell won because people still believe Tom Robinson did it because he is black. Even though Bob Ewell won the trial he was still embarrassed during the trial. Atticus suggested Bob Ewell is the one who beat Mayella and Atticus also asked how life was living with her father. Threw the whole trial in the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Bob Ewell not only seemed embarrassed but also nervous. Why was Bob Ewell nervous though, maybe because what Atticus suggested was the actual truth? 

Bob Ewell knew the people in town would believe him over Tom Robinson because he is a white man. However, Bob Ewell did have flaws in his plan and because he thought he was so superior that someone like Atticus would not notice. Atticus did, however, he probably knew that Bob Ewell beat Mayella because she was so nervous in the trial. Not by Atticus questioning her though because she was lying. Mayella was probably lying because she did not want to get beaten anymore. There were other hints too, like where the bruises located on Mayella’s face were done at a certain angle. A left-handed person gets the angle of where the bruises are better than a right-handed person. Tom is not left-handed and his left hand was completely useless; however, Bob Ewell was left-handed and he could use it perfectly. The white people were so egotistical believing that they were so superior and the blacks were so inferior to them. That they could not even see the actual truth even if it was literally under their noses.