Why Is Mayella Ewell Really A Victim In To Kill A Mockingbird

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.

Claim #1: This novel educates students about the racism and prejudice that was present in the 1930’s (reword claim) Support #1: Firstly, one of the main types of racism seen in the novel is racism towards black people. Evidence #1: “He stood up and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson. ‘—I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!’” **find different quote if possible** Elaboration #1: It is much easier to accuse a black man of committing a crime and have the whole town believe it, rather than a white man. It is Bob Ewell, not Tom Robinson, who had raped Mayella. Mayella does not want to tell the truth because she knows that If her father goes to jail there will be no one to support the family. Also, she is embarrassed of her actions and wishes to protect herself. If she tells the court that she was the one who advanced upon Tom, the people of Maycomb would look down upon her.

No one has ever shown Mayella respect or any sign of friendship. Which is the reason why she does not understand routine courtesy and is often lonely and desolate. For example, during Atticus’s cross-examination on pg198 Mayella says, “Won’t answer a word you say as long as you keep on mockin’ me.” In addition, on pg209 Jean Louise states in her realisation. “…Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world” this is because when Atticus asked about her relationships she seemed to not know what he meant. No one besides Tom Robinson has given her an opportunity to establish a relationship; it is obvious from this that the citizens of Maycomb make substantial perceptions towards others because of their lifestyle, therefore, Mayella does not belong to the Maycomb society.

Mayella is so poor that she lived behind the local town dump. The old dump, was once also an old Negro cabin, it was very decrepit and was not very clean. Mr. Ewell and Mayella were just about as poor as the African Americans, sometimes the colored folks would even look down on them. Although, they were still able to afford more them the African Americans could, they could have had better living conditions. “... Okay we’ll convict this Negro but get back to your dump.” ("DBQ: Is Mayella Powerful?" 13 ). This was showing that everyone in Maycomb knew they were very poor and did not seem to care, or offer to help.

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

Do you know what it feels like to be powerless? A white nineteen year old woman named Mayella Ewell falsely accuses a black man of raping her in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930’s, and rendering her powerless comes from being recessive in her social class, race, and gender. She accuses Tom Robinson of rape in hopes of escaping her abusive father, and a chance to have a better life. Although Mayella is white, African Americans and other white people shun her throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Mayella is a very young woman that does not own anything nice, nor clean, besides geranium flowers. During the 1930’s, men were the dominant sex, as a female, Mayella has to obey her father, Bob Ewell. As a result, Mayella is mistreated and abused.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella is powerful based on class, gender, and race. The book shows us how she does have power, and gives supporting evidence. In this time period, in a small racist Southern community during the 1930’s, all of the categories listed are very important and contributes a lot to a person. Each category has its own reasoning why Mayella is powerful. Mayella has much more power than the other person in their situation, because of all of the listed evidence. Mayella is in a trial up against a black male, Tom Robinson, who she accused of trying to rape her. They were also caught by Mr. Ewell, Mayella's father. Therefore, Tom Robinson has little to no chance of winning the case based off class, gender, and race especially during this time period.

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,

Mayella comes from an exceptionally poor family, and her socioeconomic status definitely affects how Maycomb county sees her and her family. "Atticus said that Ewells had been a disgrace to Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day of work in his recollection........they were people but they lived like animals....."(Lee) The Ewells are viewed as essentially pigs to the people of Maycomb county. Mayella who is stuck in this family, has her class overshadowing her racial power. Many people are not kind to Mayella because she comes from such a poor family; “Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her. But she said he took advantage of her, and when she stood up she looked at him as if he were dirt beneath her feet”(Lee). People are not kind Mayella because of her father and what her family is like, yet Tom Robinson was kind to her and helped her, but she still looked down upon him and lied about what he did. Regardless of class, Mayella should know right from wrong. Her class does not affect the obvious power she holds as a white person in the south, especially when she is using it in such a malevolent

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

To Kill a Mockingbird was a very influential book in the eyes of a growing young woman in America in the 1930’s from the eyes of Jean Louise as a child and Jean reminiscing or reflecting as an adult about the past. Mayella Ewell was a white woman who was looked down upon by her own race and the African Americans were too scared to talk to her. Mayella was looked at to be powerless over her own life and others. If she is, then why does she win the case against Tom Robinson? In the town of Maycomb race, class, and gender played larger roles than some may think let's determine how.

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

In the southern courts of Maycomb, Alabama, a young woman that has come from a life of poverty accuses a black man, of taking advantage of her. That woman is a young lady by the name of Mayella Ewell. Mayella has been isolated from society since she was a young girl and she has rarely ever had interactions with other people. However, evidence has shown that Mayella has lied and the actual story is completely different. So why did would Mayella make something like this up? This makes the reader wonder if she had a logical reason for lying and does she deserve sympathy for this lie? In To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, the African American that was accused, is tried in court by the Ewell family. They accused him of rape and abuse; some say that Mayella

“She says what her papa do to her don’t count.”(260) Every piece of evidence points to the fact that Mayella is trying to incarcerate Robinson for the wrongdoings of her own family, the fact that her own father had assaulted her, yet, she still chooses to incriminate an innocent man over a violent one just to preserve her reputation. Mayella Ewell’s ignorance and hypocrisy leads her to harm others, in the present and future, despite having a simple solution to resolve the problem. Furthermore, the case is quite a simple one yet the only thing that is stopping justice is the pride and hypocrisy of Mayella Ewell and the jury. Mayella Ewell did not provide one piece of concrete evidence to support the fact that she had been raped by Tom Robinson, instead she chooses to outright fabricate the whole event to protect her reputation and her father, despite swearing that she would tell nothing but the complete truth. “...there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led with exclusively his left.”(272) There is evidence to indicate that it was Bob Ewell who had beaten Mayella Ewell, because Bob is left-handed and Tom only had one good hand but despite all this, Tom is still proven guilty because of his race. Mayella Ewell has a complete disregard for the collateral damage that is Tom, uncaring of all the damage she