Examples Of Abuse In To Kill A Mockingbird

Among her other hardships, Mayella’s treatment at home is another instance where her misfortunes should invoke the reader’s sense of compassion, although her prominent influence in Tom Robinson’s death should not be vindicated. As a result of the trial, abuse in the Ewell household is revealed. Considering that she is being physically, and quite possibly sexually, abused by her father, Mayella is greatly deserving of solicitude from the reader. When recollecting the events after Mayella kissed him, Robinson’s testimony implies that she was sexually abused as he recalls that the young woman declares that she has never ‘been with’ a man before and, “... what her papa do to her don’t count,” (Lee 260). Solitary, this holds a considerable amount of evidence to indicate that Mayella was sexually abused by her father, and the occurrence of such a harrowing event in anyone’s life would be dreadful.
The excruciating pain that comes from being viciously marred is indescribable and undeniably difficult to recover from physically, moreover mentally. Furthermore on mental abuse, the reader may be able to infer that the extent of the abuse Mayella endured goes very deep. A circumstance of that would be when Atticus was questioning Mayella, and she stated that, “‘Long’s he keeps on callin’ me ma’am an sayin’ Miss Mayella, I don’t have to take his sass…” (Lee 243). This illustrates that Mayella is so unfamiliar with the civility and benevolence Atticus was giving her, she interprets it as sarcasm, and a life where respect is so unfamiliar is depressing to