Mayella Ewell's Role In To Kill A Mockingbird

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

Because the Ewells are at the bottom of the class structure along with the African Americans, and are constantly sneered and despised by their higher-ranking white peers, Bob Ewell tries to seem better than his current situation of utter poverty by trying to appear as morally superior to Tom Robinson, an African American. In accusing Tom Robinson, he sees what he believes is a way for advancement in society. Not only does he i) clear his daughter of the ‘crime’ she has committed of tempting a black man, he also ii) elevates his societal status. In his mind, the town should think him a hero for saving Maycomb's white

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,

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, a young white woman from Maycomb, Alabama, named Mayella Ewell is charging Tom Robinson a black man of rape. Mayella Ewell is not powerful in the sense that she is classified within class, race, and gender.

In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama lives Miss Mayella Ewell. She is a smart but helpless teen that accuses Tom Robinson of rape to escape from her father's abuse. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Mayella is powerful, as defined by class, race, and gender. All though in many circumstances, Mayella's class and gender make her less powerful than most, her race makes her more powerful than substantially all negroes.

In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell accuses Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping her even though her father is abusing her. Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson’s defender, was a local attorney who Mr. Ewell hated because he was going against him and his daughter. To get revenge on Atticus, Mr. Ewell attempted to murder Jem and Scout, Atticus’ children. Boo Radley, a local shut-in, saved the children and stabbed Mr Ewell. Sheriff Tate lied and said that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife.

Mayella Ewell is scared of her father and is concerned about her well being during the trial. She is a very nice girl but she has to lie about Tom Robinson so that her father would not beat her over it. She also doesn’t like how Atticus is talking to her because she has never been talked to in a formal way before. During the trial she says, “Love him, whatcha mean?” This shows that she has never been loved by her father, and she is the person that Mr. Ewell can take his anger out on (183). She also repeated everything her father said like they had rehearsed it. Finally, when Atticus starts asking her questions her calls her “ma'am” and “ miss”. So she started to cry and says, “Long’s you keep on makin’ fun o’me” this shows that she has not

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise Finch and Mayella Ewell are the daughters of two men that are caught up in some legal drama within the community of Maycomb, Alabama. From afar, these girls seem like two ordinary young ladies, but digging deeper into their personalities and lives at home reveals a lot of dissimilarities.

The Maycomb jury accused Tom Robinson guilty of rape of Mayella Ewell, not because they truly thought he was guilty; he was wrongfully convicted because of our town’s long time “honor code” of our society. Our “honor code” is nothing but a meaningless, unbroken rule saying that all whites are infallible, while all negroes are immoral and can’t be trusted around anyone. If a white person were to break this “code”, that person would be considered an outcast in our town. Of course, as I’ve said before, some whites and negroes are immoral and can’t be trusted around anyone. Take the Ewells, for example. Maycomb despises them, and barely keeps them isolated from the rest of town. They represent Maycomb’s worst side, but their word is still taken over a black man’s word, simply because they’re white. None of the jury members wanted to risk their own reputations and be

In the town of Maycomb county, there is a small, sad shack next to the dump. While the house is shabby and in a terrible state of disrepair, Harper Lee (the author of To Kill a Mockingbird) says, “against the fence, in a line, were six chipped enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson... People said they were Mayella Ewell’s.” (Lee 228) The shabbiness of the house represents the people who live in it, the Ewells. The Ewells are all chaotic and unpopular. Like the house, they are unsightly and looked down upon; however, Mayella Ewell is an exception. While the others are content to live in squalor, Mayella is not. She expresses this through her flowers. She wants

Mayella Ewell represents the physical manifestation of what ignorance, racism and prejudice can do to a person. She has been abused by her father, a man that shows no regard for his family.

Do you know what it is like to lose a loved one and take on the role of the caregiver for siblings left behind? If so, you may be able to relate to Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell was a poor white woman living near the Maycomb County Town Dump, with an abusive father and seven other siblings. Mayella, to one reader's perspective, is powerless when it comes to this case, even though she is a white woman living in the 1930s in Maycomb County, Alabama.

In to kill a mockingbird Mayella Ewell is a unique character, she has a particular personality that messes with your emotions.There are very few characters in the book like this and that is why she is quite unique. Most of the people are in the book are good and have the right traits but there are some characters such as Mayella Ewell who is not a good character. She has a bundle of emotions but two particularly stand out. Mayella Ewell is an evil, clever, and lonely character whose actions scramble your thoughts between killing her and being sympathetic.

“‘Mr. Ewell?...Why, Atticus said they were absolute trash-I never heard Atticus talk about folks the way he talked about the Ewells,’” Scout says talking to Reverend Sykes about the court case (Lee 164). In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Mr. Ewell is a citizen of Maycomb, Alabama who is looked down upon in the town. In everyone’s eyes he is the worst citizen and should not be trusted, but there is one group of people that is hated more and that is the African-Americans. Mr. Ewell accuses a black man, Tom Robinson, of raping his daughter Mayella. He wins the court case due to the racism in the town, even though it is obvious that Tom did not do it. Who actually hurt Mayella was Mr. Ewell because he saw Mayella kiss Tom. A white woman

I think that Mayella Ewell is someone I feel sympathetic towards, for she only followed her heart and was rejected by society for this reason. Mayella Ewell comes from a disorganized, drunkard, and poor family. She is the foundational structure that keeps the family intact. Her father is a drunk pariah that only looks forward to his whisky towards the end of the day. Mayella helps the family, but is shunned upon for her lack of wealth. She has no camarades, or outside relationships with any of the townspeople, except with Tom Robinson. He loved, him and felt more human around him. I feel sympathetic for her obligation to lie about Tom Robinson, the man she loved. She lied to help her father who wasted his few miniscule wealth on alcohol, and