What Does Mayella Ewell Mean In To Kill A Mockingbird

The way in that Mayella Ewell, the victim in this trial, is presented makes the reader feel mainly sympathetic towards her. The first way in which Lee does this is by making Mayella look lonely. Before asking Mayella to give her evidence about the case, Atticus Finch tries to paint an image of Mayella’s home life. To do this he asks “Who are your friends?” to which she replies “You makin’ fun o’me agin, Mr Finch?” This shows that Mayella is confused by the question, to the point where she does not really understand the idea that she could have friends at all. As well as this, it suggests that she is used to being made fun of and so when she doesn’t understand something that Atticus has said, her automatic reaction is to assume that she is being teased. Furthermore this is her innate response. Therefore this implies that her upbringing has made

Mayella Ewell is a tragic character in To Kill a Mockingbird. She is faced with many struggles involving her family and the people around her. Although Mayella is a poor white woman with an abusive father, no mother, and six siblings to take care of she does have power. Mayella Ewell is powerful as a character and continues to gain power in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird when it comes to race, class and gender. Despite Mayella being very poor and in a lower class of the society in Maycomb Alabama she uses her status as a white female to manipulate others into deciding in her favor when dealing with her court case against Tom Robinson regarding him being wrongfully accused of

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,

When Mayella nodded at Atticus’s question it was clear that her father was “different” when intoxicated. When Mayella believed she made a mistake in her story she was scared. In the story it states that “When Atticus turned away from Mayella he looked like his stomach hurt, but Mayella was a mixture of terror and fury” (Lee 251). She could have been terrified of what might happen to her with her father. In addition to her father being abusive he was also portrayed as extremely angry and judgmental. Even in court Bob Ewell had no manners. A quote of him being angry would be “ Mr. Ewell turned angrily to the judge and said he didn’t see what left-handed had to do with it, that he was a Christ-fearing man and Atticus was taking advantage of him (Lee 237). He got really disrespectful to the judge and Atticus. Any evidence pointing to him beating Mayella would make him furious. When it was Tom’s turn on the witness stand he said when Mr. Ewell saw what Mayella was doing he screamed “ you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya ” (Lee 260). Bob Ewell has a deep hatred against Negroes, and always judged them before knowing them. He hated the fact that his daughter was betraying him in that

Mayella Ewell had the chance to put the real rapist to prison, but instead she backed him up and now she has to live with him and with that decision the rest of her life. Tom was at the witness stand when Atticus asked him about Mr. Ewell said: “Tom Robinson shut his eyes tight. “ He says you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya””(Document B). Mr. Ewell has complete power over his Mayella and this exhibits how he has power over her.

People feel sympathy towards those that are believed to be unlikely to lie, and Mayella took advantage of this. During the trial, Scout realizes that “Tom Robinson was a dead man the moment [Mayella] opened her mouth to scream” (Lee 323), which is mainly because she was given sympathy. When she tells her story about the events that happened between her and Tom Robinson, the audience pities her, and she is described as “[. . .] fragile looking, but when she sat facing us in the witness chair, she became what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor” (Lee 239). They describe her as someone who looks strong and controlled, but also as frail and fragile. Even though her life is not on the line, the people in the courtroom believe her to need more protection because of her fragile appearance. After Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell spit in his face, Atticus responds to his children by saying “if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take” (Lee 293). Even the lawyer that shows the town that she was guilty pities her, even after she denies her lies and lets a young man die. In this situation, race is a contributing role towards this sudden acceptance, because in the society that these characters live, individuals with white skin are often viewed as less likely to commit sin

She most likely ss criticizing Atticus for having money because she grew up with little money. Since the trial had begun many people have threatened Atticus this includes Mayella's Dad Bob Ewell. Not only did Bob Ewell threaten Atticus but he also threatened his family. When people threaten your family in some cases you may lose your anger and get in a fight with that person. Since Atticus is responsible and has respect for others he just stood there as Bob threatened, and spit in his face. He was trying not to make the situation worse or let it get out of hand by just standing there. Atticus could have threatened him back or he could have said something rude. Since he was respectful and has responsibilities he acted as if he did not care what Bob said to him and walked away. "I got somethin' to say an' then I ain't gonna say no more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me an' if you fine fancy gentlemen don't wanta do nothin' about it then you're all yellow stinkin' cowards, stinkin' cowards, the lot of

The Ewells live in horrid conditions. The are spiteful, disgusting, and vile human beings. The Ewells are poor white trash. Maycomb County looks down on the Ewells. Despite the situation the Ewells are in, it is no excuse for the actions they take. Mayella may have been extremely lonely and looking for companionship in Tom Robinson, however, this does not excuse the fact that she cause the death of a man, Robinson. Mayelle lied time and time again about what really happened the night of her accused rape. Maybe Mayella did it her father, Bob, may have been sexually and physically abusing her, and he may have hurt her if she told the truth.During Mayella’s testimony she says, "He does tollable, 'cept when--" "... Except when he's drinking?" asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded. (Lee 18. 209). Or, or maybe she didn’t want to admit that she broke one of Maycomb’s unspoken laws: kissing a colored man. Yes, any of these reasons can scare a person into concealing the truth. Mayella displays a great amount of self-preservation: the protection of oneself from harm or death, especially regarded as a basic instinct in human beings and

Mayella Ewell does not exert power through her gender because there is suspicion about Mr. Ewell abusing and beating her. Scout describes the interaction between Mayella and her father during the trial: “Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with her chair tipped against the railing. He sat up straight and waited

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

Throughout time, people have found ways to gain control of each other. Power can be obtained through three things: social class, gender and race. In To Kill Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, the author writes many components relating to power. One character, Mayella Ewell, shows power in the courtroom by accusing a black man of raping her. Mayella does not have power in her social class or gender; however, she does have power in her race.

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions.

Power Race, class, and gender can all determine how powerful you are. Power is how much you can control and what you can do. Without power, it is much harder to get what you want to happen. In To Kill A Mockingbird, black people and women do not have as much power as white people, men, and people with class power. Even though Mayella Ewell is white, she is a woman and does not have any class power.

Mayella does not have power involving social class, The Ewells are a poor family, and her father, Bob Ewell, is looked down upon by the town. During Tom Robinson’s trial, Bob Ewell thought of himself as “a hero, but all he got for his pain was… okay we’ll convict this Negro, but get back to your dump” (Lee

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents Mayell Ewell as a complex, round character with traits that evoke various feeling from the reader. In one light, “she seemed somehow fragile-looking” (179). She is scared of what would happen to her if anyone found out she was lying. The questioning became too much and made her “stare at (Judge Taylor) and burst into tears” (179). The crying showed her emotional and fragile side of her. The fact that there was a bigger, more powerful being forcing her to act a certain way scared her. She continued to cry at certain times and didn’t answer some of Atticus’s questions. She was scared of what would happen if they didn’t win