Did the ending of the novel surprise you? If you were the author, would you have ended the story differently? Explain.
The ending of the novel did surprise me. The ending surprised me in two ways, the jury's decision and Bob Ewell's death.
Jury's Decision
To provide some important background information, the jury found Tom Robinson, an innocent black, guilty for raping Mayella Ewell, who is Bob Ewell's daughter. The Ewell family was in Maycomb County seen as poor white trash. Although they are completely healthy, they do not go to work and rely on money given by the government. In the court case, the jury found Tom Robinson guilty. I found this ending very shocking as I felt that Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson's defence lawyer (he is a white, by the way), very successful in his argument and his reasonings were very reasonable. However, because of prejudice against blacks, they decided that the defendant is guilty, causing his death.
Bob Ewell's Death
At the very end of the story, Bob Ewell tried to kill Atticus Finch's two children, Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) and Jean Louise Finch (Scout). However, the supposed antagonist in the story, Authur "Boo" Radley, saved them by killing Bob Ewell. This was surprising in three ways. Firstly, I did not expect Bob Ewell's hatred for Atticus Finch to be so deep such that he wanted to kill his children. Secondly, I did not Bob Ewell to be cruel enough to attack the young children Jem and Scout. Thirdly, I did not expect Arthur Radley to be so brave and courageous and kill others to help people whom he only met a few times. This ending was very shocking. I feel that most would agree with me.
Alternative Ending?
If I could change the ending, I would still remain with Bob Ewell's death. For doing so many bad things, he deserved such retribution in the end. However, I feel that his death could have been more dramatic as this would let readers hate Bob Ewell even more and identify with the story better. I would suggest that Arthur Radley not kill him so easily. There should be some struggle, with Arthur getting injured, which would make readers' impression on Arthur Radley have a big twist.
Another alternative I can think of is Mayella Ewell killing his own father because he was too abusive, with Mayella going to jail instead of a death sentence. This would make readers too hate Bob Ewell more and empathise with Mayella Ewell's tragic consequence.
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Hello Kee Xuan.
ReplyDeleteI feel it is an overall good job, and you did an accurate and deep reflection to describe the ending and add your own feelings in. However, I disagree with your alternative ending. I feel that while Bob Ewell should be killed, he should not be killed by Arthur Radley. Instead, a better ending would be for Arthur Radley to suddenly trip him, causing him to fall down on his own knife. In the end, it would be karma that finished him off. It would also reduce the stigma attached with murder of a person. Also, I disagree with your alternative ending. Mayella Ewell is portrayed all along as intimidated by her father, so she would not have the courage to kill her own father. I feel a better ending to bring out "retribution" would be for one of the Negroes to be chopping wood, then Mr Ewell walks past to jeer at them. The tree would fall on Mr Ewell, killing him.
Overall good job done, Kee Xuan :D
Hello Kee Xuan,
ReplyDeleteI disagree of your second provided alternative ending.
If Bob Ewell did not go after Atticus' kids, Arthur Radley would not have saved them. If the information about Arthur Radley wasn't given out in the ending, the story would seem to be left open, as the readers still would have no idea who Arthur Radley is. Also, with Arthur Radley's rescue, Scout also truly learns Atticus' teachings.
Best regards,
Alton
get a life
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