Character Analysis Of Mayella Ewell In To Kill A Mockingbird

Imagine you are given a choice to either betray your alcoholic father or send an innocent man to jail on a false accusation. What choice would you make? You can determine the motivation of your actions by using Kohlberg’s Stages of Morality. Kohlberg’s Stages range the drive of your actions from selfish to selfless. When analyzing a character’s actions using Kohlberg’s stages, you can compare the development of their morality throughout the novel to one's augmentation throughout life. Knowing other peoples drive behind their actions may help you to determine your own. Mayella Ewell is a character in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. She is faced with the life-changing decision to either tell the truth and send her father to jail, or lie and send an innocent man to jail for rape. When faced with many circumstances throughout the novel, Mayella operates at stages 1 and 2 but as the book progresses,

During the Tom Robinson case it is awfully clear that Mayella Ewell is lying about what happened that night. The question is why she did it. The two reasons I believe that motivated her to lie is loneliness and being scared of her father. One of her motives would be loneliness because she had no friends; therefore, this might make her have some new friends. During the trial Atticus asks Mayella “ A nineteen-year-old girl like you must have friends. Who are your friends? The witness frowned as if puzzled. Friends”? (Lee 245). Scout explained that “ When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant” (Lee 256). Mayella was confused and believed that Atticus was making fun of her in front of everyone. Not only did she not have friends her family do not take care of

Throughout history power has been distributed among people in different forms. Three components contribute to this and are seen over and over again. Some ways people gain power is from their social class, their gender, and their race. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird these components are present relating to power. Mayella has power related to her race but however she does not have power with her class and gender.

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is charged with the rape of a white girl. Tom is facing a false charge due to being ranked in a lower social class. In the testimony of Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson, each victim is told to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There are similarities and differences in each of the victim’s claims, due to the whole truth not being told.     An example of a similarity in between each the testimonies would be that both Tom and Mayella told the truth about Tom passing the Ewell house every time he would pick for Mr. Link Deas.

Mayella Ewell has caused an uproar in Maycomb, Alabama. Accusing Tom Robinson of rape and facing Atticus Finch in the courtroom, she is not a powerful force and that will be confirmed by her class, race, and gender in Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird. Not to mention her class is unquestionably horrible and she lives behind a dump in the house of a pig farmer. Her status is only slightly better than a Negros and even though Mayella is a white woman and should be protected, she has been abused by her father and other whites and Negroes will not help her.

In addition to not being able to show their true selves, these individuals also find themselves in problematic situations. Mayella Ewell, from the book To Kill a Mockingbird, feels hesitant with her answer to Atticus Finch’s question about Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell:

Andrew James A. Brown-Hall 4th Block 9th comp. Lit Monday November 3, 2014 Is Mayella Powerful? Power is the ability to controls one’s life and the lives’ of others. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Mayella Ewell is believed to have been raped by suspect Tom Robinson, a poorly treated and disrespected Negro.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Mayella Ewell is not powerful, according to her class, race, and gender.

Mayella Ewell has power due to her race, gender, even though she is in the lowest class. Mayella is a white female living in Maycomb Alabama. Mayella gains her power through her race, but her gender and class prevents from having more power.

In To Kill A Mocking Bird the main character (Mayella Ewell ) in either powerful or powerless in different aspects. Power is the ability to control ones movement or the movement of others. In the story the main character (Mayella Ewell) is accused a man colored (Tom Robinson) of sexual assault, but the man is innocent. I will explain the ways that she is either powerful or powerless in three areas. Mayella may not have been powerful in class and gender, but she was powerful in the area of race.

In the undisputed classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee elucidates the racial injustice and social inequality in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama. The Ewells are premeditated to be the despicable family, “white trash,” divided by living “behind the dump” not suitable to be a member of the white or the black community. Mayella Ewell breaches a “rigid and time-honored code” of society, by kissing a black male to fulfill her need of feeling cherished. To avoid greater disgrace in society, the Ewells plea Tom Robinson to be a rapist, and he is later convicted and sent to life in prison. Red geraniums growing on the sidelines of the filthy yard reveal Mayella’s desire for beauty. Mayella contends to class hierarchies and gender roles being an Ewell. Lee portrays Mayella struggling to meet the guidelines of

A person's race, class, and gender are things that can either enhance their future or block it. Personal power is a measurement of the power you possess as an individual, and how it plays a part in your overall life. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird the author Harper Lee, uses social and physical features to give her character's power. Mayella Ewell is a white southern woman that was born into a very poor family. Due to her mother's death she was forced to play the role of a wife for her abusive alcoholic father, and a mother for her siblings to keep her family from falling apart altogether. Harper Lee gives Mayella power through her gender, race, and class that ultimately has the power to convicted an innocent man.

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell is powerful and gains power as the story goes on. Mayella Ewell is a poor white woman who lives in a dump, her mom left her family when she was young. Mayella has stepped into the mother role in her family. In the story Mayella is abused mentally and physically by her father Bob Ewell. Mayella Ewell is a woman no one wants to associate with, she is white so on African-American man will talk to her and she is poor so no white man will. Characters that are a higher class are treated with more respect especially if they are a white male. In Maycomb it is very segregated and many characters are placed into harsh stereotypes.

Mayella Ewell represents a mockingbird slain by society’s prejudice towards those of a low social class. Ewell is a helpless white girl who is discriminated by society, and suffered under her father’s oppression. She nurtured her siblings, tended to geraniums, and unaided, performed all the chores. However, instead of rewarding Ewell, her father would “beat her up” daily. Society discriminated her due to “living among pigs” and being “the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations”. She was disassociated by white people because of her social standing, and also by black people because of her skin color. Kindness and compassion were alien to her; when Atticus called her “Miss Mayella”, she accused him for teasing her. Ewell’s vulnerability was

Mayella may come off as an idiot because she “sat silently” when asked what happened (179). She also thinks Atticus is “mockin’ (her)” when he calls her “ma’am” and “miss” (181). But truly, Mayella is just a product of being alone, trapped, and forced to be independent. Without needed care and love she was forced to try to find it herself. Throwing herself onto Tom was an act of desperate need for attention. I think with proper care she could be like everyone else. There is also another side of her, one that does well with what she has. Mayella “tried to keep clean” (179). She also takes care of her flowers. Harper Lee created a character that is slightly relatable but truly understandable. The problems Mayella faces are more severe than needed to be relatable. But what you can understand is her situation. I feel like I understand her need for affection but I would not go to the extremes of throwing myself onto someone. The seemingly logical ways in which Mayella acts at times, make the readers feel sympathy for her. Even though we know she is lying and that the case was racist and unfair, it’s hard to blame her. The lying and