The main act of revenge that is notable in the book is Bob
Ewell, who attacks Jem and Scout because he is mad at Atticus for exposing him as an
abusive, foolish, racist drunk. Atticus, through his questioning of Bob and Mayella, is
able to pretty clearly show that Tom was innocent, and that Bob had framed Tom to cover
for his abuse of his daughter, and because he knew he could get away with it. Bob had
wounded pride, and took it out on Atticus through the attack on his children. That
didn't end well for him. Mayella played a role in the revenge theme herself when she
turned on Tom and accused him of rape; she was insulted that he did not accept her
romantic advances. She was hurt and felt betrayed, so turned on him, and the accusation
of rape was her revenge for being jilted.
In smaller ways,
revenge flows throughout the book with other characters too. Take for instance Jem
destroying Mrs. Dubose's flowers. He did that because of all of her nasty comments
about them and their family. That act of revenge didn't go over too well, as Atticus
made him make up for it by reading to her until her death. Atticus did not condone
revenge, and actively fought against it through this assignment given to Jem. Scout
gets revenge on her cousin Francis when he starts teasing and taunting her about her
father, and beats him up. She also gets in trouble from Atticus for that
act.
Revenge, in this book, is shown to be an unpleasant
and unrewarding endeavor. It never is satisfying and always has a bad result. I hope
that those thoughts helped; good luck!
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