To Kill a Mockingbird Chapters 18-20

Mayella's testimony seemed coniving to me. She cried to make a scene and tried to gain sympathy from Judge Taylor. Luckily the judge did not buy it. She wanted to make it seem like Atticus was trying to sass her but he was simply interrogating her. Atticus remained calm through the whole scenario and knew how to ask the questions in a way to make her think and become speechless. Atticus raised a valid point that I had predicted was a a possibility early on in the trial. It is possible that her father abused her and was trying to blame the incident on Tom Robinson. I feel disheartened for Tom Robinson the same way that Dill did at the end of chapter 19. It came as a major plot twist when Tom testifies that Mayella tried to kiss him because she was a lonely person that had no friends. It makes her situiation seem sad, but its not helping Tom's case because he had been over the house before. He comes off as such an innocent man and it makes my heartbreak to hear him being interrogated that way. I likes the way Atticus ended chapter 20 by saying that Mayella had not commited a crime, but had a broken a racial rule created by society that has never been done before.