To Kill a Mockingbird question

No, Boo Radley killed him, defending the children. That has always seemed pretty clear to me, at least after a couple of re-reads. The sheriff found him with a butcher knife stuck in him, a weapon he would have been unlikely to carry with him when he went after the kids, because it's difficult to conceal, much more likely had a smaller hunting knife. Even if the butcher knife was his, there is no way a boy with a broken arm or a little girl trapped in a heavy wire and paper mache costume could have grabbed it from him and killed him. Atticus at first assumed that Jem did it, and that the butcher knife was Ewell's own knife, but then the sherriff moves the conversation in a different direction...we hear it from the point of view of the child Scout, so it is confusing, but the sherriff assures Atticus that Jem didn't do it, and seems to strongly imply that Boo - the neighbour who brought Jem home and is still sitting by his bed as the other men talk on the porch - was the one who did it, but he doesn't want it to get out to the community because in his words it would be "a sin" to drag the reclusive Boo into the limelight, and bring "him and his shy ways" a lot of attention he doesn't want. I think we just need to piece together from that conversation what really happened - that Boo heard or saw the attack on the children by his house, grabbed the butcher knife from the kitchen, and went out to save them. But the sheriff insists he is not going to tell anyone that, and will instead tell people that "Bob Ewell fell on his own knife" and put it in his report. If you read it a couple more times I think it will become more clear.

No, Mr. Ewell was killed by Boo. You could tell this because at the end of the book Heck Tate was talking on the porch and stated how it would be bringing someone into the spotlight that hadn't seen the light. Implying Boo. Boo had not stepped foot outside the Radley house in years and you knew this by the fact that when Scout was describing him he was pale and it was as though sun had never touched his skin. Mr. Ewell was also killed with a kitchen knife and Heck Tate had his pocket knife to make it look like a suicide. The only person close enough to them that had immediate access to a kitchen knife was Boo. This was a hard detail to notice because it was subtle in the fact that Harper Lee literally went off people having to imply the correct answer on how he was killed. There were subtle hints that lead to this conclusion but were hard to notice unless you are very detail oriented.

No.....I don't think neither Mr.Ewell committed suicide,nor Jem killed him.Actually, Boo killed him.Obviously, Boo did it to save Scout and Jem .At last, after along argument with Mr.Tate, Atticus also understands this and asks Scout about this to which she replies "Well,it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird,wouldn't it?" (where, 'it' refers to charging Boo with murder)...

Scout killed Mr. Ewell. In the last scene, both Atticus and the sheriff know that scout killed him, but the sheriff doesn't want to send Scout to trial. Atticus says he needs to though, even though he is his own son.

I remember being confused why somebody would throw away a kitchen knife the first time I read the book. It was only after I watched the movie did I realize that it was the Radley’s kitchen knife which Boo took from their kitchen.

Boo killed Mr. Ewell