Are we encouraged to sympathise with this character?

How do you know?

Robert Ewell

We are instead, encouraged to be against this character. Reading about his foul attitude towards Atticus and the rumours of his reputation, influence us to think disgustedly of him, as well as his perception of race, and coloured people. Things like wasting his only money on whisky and alcohol rather than his "eight motherless children", or losing his job in a matter of days due to laziness “he was the only man I ever heard of who was fired from the WPA". However, some sympathy is shown for Bob from Atticus, “It might be because he knows in his heart that very few people in Maycomb really believed his and Mayella's yarns. He thought he'd be a hero, but all he got for his pain was... was, okay, we'll convict this Negro but get back to your dump.”