Throughout human history, the transformation from naïve children to mature adults has been of profound importance. The various customs to prove maturation in different cultures shows the widespread significance of this transition. Within literature, the variety of passages to maturation spanning from peaceful and blissful to depressing and unbearable exhibits the embodiment of this tedious process. Bildungsroman stories embody all of these different paths from the common starting point of birth. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one such bildungsroman story that is the story of a girl’s maturation contrasted with the children around her. Through the utilization of different economic and familial backgrounds during the Great Depression …show more content…
Parallel to the Finch family, both families rely on a single father with a deceased wife to provide for the family; however, their abusive alcoholic father neglects the large number of children in the Ewell family and deprives them of a healthy home unlike the Finch family. The characterization of Burris Ewell testifies to the lack of a structured home life. Burris is, “the filthiest human [Scout] has ever seen. His neck was dark gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep into the quick.” This unsanitary description of a first grade boy shows the lack of attention paid to the children in the Ewell residence. Burris additionally has lice, portraying the lack of medical attention afforded to the children in the Ewell family. This behavior normally would see the kids stripped from Mr. Ewell’s custody; however, the Ewell family receives autonomy because despite the fact that Mr. Ewell uses all of their welfare money on alcohol and ammunition for his poaching habit, the poached animals are the only food consumed by the children in the Ewell family, and the kids have invoked pity from the population of Maycomb. This passive policy transcends to the false accusation of Tom Robinson in the rape of Mr. Ewell’s nineteen-year-old daughter Mayella. Despite the physical age of Mayella being one of an adult, Mayella is still a child at heart. The diction of her testimony during Tom Robinson’s trial confirms that she is uneducated and immature from lack of interactions with civilized society outside of her daily interactions with the minority community down the street from the Ewell’s property behind the county dump. Even simple questions elicited juvenile answers; when asked her age, she responded, “nineteen-and-a-half.” The vast majority of mature adults would not describe their age in
I am reading the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This book is about a girl named Scout Finch who lives with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus, during the Great Depression. They live in a small town called Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a town where everybody knows everybody. There is currently a trial taking place; Mayella vs. Tom Robinson. Tom has been accused of rapeing Mayella. Tom has pleaded not guilty for the crime he has been accused of. In this journal I will be evaluating Tom’s character and questioning why the Ewells may be lying.
Mayella is powerful in regards to her race; however, she is not powerful in regards to her gender and social class. One of the many challenges Mayella Ewell faces dealing with power is her social class. Mayella is far from wealthy and her father has a bad reputation. While at Tom Robinson’s trial, Scout explains, “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin” (Lee Document A).
Scout realizes that even though her father did everything he could to prove that Tom was a free man, there was still no way that he would’ve gotten out free because of the ignorant morals in Maycomb county. “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (323) After the news of his death dies down, Mr. Bob Ewell still isn’t satisfied and tries to kill both of the Finch children in a drunken rage after the town’s Halloween pageant held in the school. He was stopped and killed by the town’s hermit, Mr. Arthur “Boo” Radley, and since the sheriff Mr. Heck Tate knew that if the town found out that Mr. Arthur saved the lives of two children, it would call attention to the one man that wanted to be left alone. Mr. Heck Tate decided that Mr. Ewell “fell on his knife”, and his death was accidental.
While Mayella was being questioned not only by Atticus but the judge , Scout asked herself various questions trying to understand Mayella. “ I wonder if anybody had ever called her ‘ma’am,’ or ‘Miss Mayella’ in her life;as she took offense to routine courtesy,” (Lee 244). At the trial Scout begins to realize a lot about Mayella during the trial and really how lonely a person she is. “I discovered that I had been sitting on the edge of the long bench, and I was somewhat numb,” (Lee).“As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her. She was as sad, I thought, as what Jem called a mixed child: white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white. She couldn’t live like Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who preferred the company of Negroes, because she didn’t own a riverbank and she wasn’t from a fine old family,” (Lee). Everyone see’s the Ewell’s just as a lazy family who sit’s in their own filth and are beyond dumb, but never really took into consideration what their inside lives were like. Here Scout get’s too see Mayella’s life and see feel’s her
Scout’s exposure to the events occurring in Maycomb impacted her growth in both subtle and forceful manners. The shooting of the wild dog, Tim Johnson, clears up the fact that Atticus is not a bland or boring person, but a very interesting and skilled one — hence the nickname “one-shot finch”. The shooting of the wild dog, taught Scout that there may be more to people than there first appears to be, and it is solely up to her to find out what “more”, the person contains inside. Prior to the shooting of the wild dog, Scout describes her father as feeble, but after, her opinion changes. When miss Maudie asks “Still think your father can’t do anything? Still ashamed of him?” (Lee 98), Scout replies with a simple “Nome” (Lee 98) strengthening the fact that Atticus is no longer boring, and there is now more to learn about the other people from the town. Later on, the Tom Robinson case comes along, and the jury rules that Tom is guilty.
When Tom Robinson, an African-American man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, Atticus is appointed as the defense attorney. Mayella and her shiftless father, Bob Ewell, live in abject poverty on the outskirts of town. The family is known as trouble and disliked by
Consequently, they live in an abandoned Negro cabin, with a dirt floor and open spaces in the walls for windows. Scout says “Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world.”(Lee, Chapter 19). The citizens of Maycomb County steered clear of the Ewells. The whites shunned them and the blacks stayed away because Bob Ewell was racist, and because Bob was racist he did not contain his feelings about the blacks in Maycomb. The Ewells were the lowest of the low, and Mayella wanted to separate herself from the rest of her family. This portrays that Mayella’s low social status diminishes her
Mayella Ewell is beggarded in her class and relies on others to survive since their is no structure in her dirty household. In the city of Maycomb, welfare is given to Mayella’s family because they can not survive on their own. Her home is uncivilized with many dirty kids and a home that resembles a dump. Families of Maycomb try to avoid the Ewell’s home since it has a terrible smell due to the fact they
The author portray Mayella Ewell as a symbol of ignorant innocence warped into an outlet of evil, specifically the strain of racism. She is the victim of horrible and abusive influence. Her character development and testimony truly show this in the book. When Atticus begins to cross examine her on the witness her weak character begins to shed light on the lies her father installed into her head. Not only is her memory foggy due to the strenuous abuse, but also she lies on oath. “No answer. ‘What did your father see in the window, the crime of rape or the best defense to it? Why don’t you tell the truth, child, didn’t Bob Ewell beat you up?.’” (Lee 187). As her testimony continues, it is self-evident that Mayella is not being fully truthful and her father emotionally, physically and sexually exploits her. Mayella is forced to keep her and her father’s secret under safe keeping, but some of her account and questioning sheds light on the raw ways of Bob Ewell and the keeping of his family. “‘Do you love your Father, Miss Mayella?’ was his next. ‘Love him, watcha mean?’ ‘I mean, is he good to you, is he easy to get along with?’ ‘He does tollable, ‘cept when--’ ‘Except when?’ Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with his chair tipped against the railing. He sat up straight and waited for her to answer.” (Lee 183). Through slight inconsistencies and small actions as her time of the witness it is easy to tell that Mayella knows her father’s wrongdoing and that she is being used for his evil purposes.
The story is told through the eyes of Scout Finch, a little girl who is a rebellious tomboy. Atticus Finch (Scout’s father), Jem Finch (Scout’s brother) and Scout Finch all live in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. In the story, Atticus an attorney, tries to hopelessly prove Tom Robinson, a black man, innocent of sexually assaulting Mayella Ewell, a white 19-year-old girl. Because Atticus decides to defend Tom, the Finch family faces harsh criticism from the very prejudiced town of Maycomb. Atticus’s conscience couldn’t let him not go through with the case. He knows Tom is innocent, but he also knows Tom has a slim to none chance of winning the case. Because the white jury will never believe a black man over a
Mockingbirds are majestic songbirds, well known for their enchanting songs. Though intelligent, mockingbirds are delicate, fragile creatures that are harmless to their surroundings. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, she utilizes the mockingbird as a symbol for the innocent who are harmed by their society. The first instance of the bird’s significance is when Jem and Scout Finch receive air rifles for Christmas. They become interested in shooting birds.
“He is one of the Ewell’s, ma’am,” a child told me. This explanation was the second of its kind I had received that day. I hadn’t been in Maycomb for long and I didn’t know the ethics of a small town. I listened on to see what the child had to say. Education doesn’t appear to be one of the Ewell family’s principles. It seemed that the children attend the school for the first day of each school year just to satisfy the law.
Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee focuses more on the aspect of racial discrimination rather than “poor white trash” discrimination (Hovet 187). It is so conspicuous that a man loses his life because of it. Racism is very prominent in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as the South as a whole in the 1930s, but becomes crucial when Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, causing the lives of their families, the Finch family, and the citizens of Maycomb County, Alabama, to be changed forever by death and overcoming prejudices. Atticus Finch is an upstanding lawyer, father, and citizen of Maycomb who must overcome the obstacle of defending Tom Robinson
Whatever respect or sympathy the reader might have had for Bob Ewell is dispelled by his behaviour in the courtroom and the evidence that Atticus produces that he was the cause of Mayella's beating. Not only is he a self-righteous bully but he is prepared to sacrifice Tom Robinson's life for his own selfish ends. The reader is more likely to feel sympathy for Mayella as the trial progresses. Her loneliness and need for simple human contact are made painfully evident as Scout comes to understand that she is 'the loneliest
Mayella Ewell is powerful in Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. When it comes down to class, race, and gender, Mayella holds a great quantity of power. Mayella Ewell is a poor, white woman that lives in a run down house by a dump. She has to care for her six other siblings because her mom left when she was very young and Mayella’s father Bob, is an alcoholic. Bob physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually abuses Mayella. Mayella uses her class, race, and gender to her advantage to try and get herself out of her living conditions at home. She drags Tom Robinson, a black male, into a whirlwind of accusations of him raping her. Mayella has a huge advantage in the trial because of her class, gender, and race.