Mayella Ewell lives with her father and seven siblings in a old Negro cabin behind a dump. Mayella acts like a surrogate mother to her siblings after their mother died when Mayella was young. Which means that Mayella is occupied with watching kids all day and is too busy to go to school. This makes her less powerful because although Mayella is pretty smart in the sense that she was able to use Tom Robinson, she is not smart enough to do much of everything else. “In To Kill A Mockingbird” Atticus says, “Okay, we’ll convict this Negro but get back to your dump.” (DPQ Mayella Chapter 27) This puts Mayella and her father at a disadvantage because other white people refer her as poor white trash who lives in a dump. Mayella Ewell will always be viewed as superior to African Americans but she would not be very much in white…
In a small and peaceful town in alabama, everything is peaceful for the residents at Maycomb, the people are happy and everyone is nice to each other...that is until a thirst for power changes the residents of Maycomb. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ takes place in the great depression era, people are poor and buying food for their families is hard and stressful, everyone feels powerless and useless, the story is told by Jean Louise Finch(Scouts) memories, she talks about her brother Jem and her father Atticus and all the adventures she had with Jem and her friend Dill. The story takes a turn when Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, when he in fact did not rape her, she tried to seduce him but got caught and blamed Tom, and since Tom was black, people were corrupted by the ‘Evil Assumption” and he gets put in jail until trial.…
Atticus goes against the values of society. At the time period, blacks and whites were segregated and wanted nothing to do with each other. When a black man, Tom Robinson was accused of raping white girl, Mayella Ewell, tension grew among Maycomb. Atticus goes against the town's values and beliefs about blacks and decides to take Toms side. He believes Tom is innocent and supports him while society takes Mayella's side. Atticus demonstrates how skin color should not matter.…
The book”To Kill A Mockingbird”, there are a lot of characters that have power. One of those characters is Mayella Ewell. In this paper, Mayella Ewell using her class, gender, and race will prove how and why she has power. She has power because of her gender and race mostly. But he class does play a part in why she has power. In the 1930 there were laws that keep blacks and whites separated. Some of the laws were set to keep black men and white women or the other way around from intermingling. Mayella Ewell is an white young woman that is very poor and is abused by her father. Tom Robinson is a older black man that helps Mayella out by doing stuff she can not do. But poor old Tom gets accused of raping Mayella. Tn the 1930, if you were black and you were accused of doing something to a white person, the white person always won the case. Since Tom was an African American and Mayella was white, he was found guilty. As a result, this shows you some reasons why Mayella has power.…
Lee creates compassion for Mayella Ewell by describing her life at home. In this chapter, Atticus progressively builds an image of Mayella’s life at home: «’you the eldest? The oldest?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How long has your mother been dead?’ ‘Don’t know- long time.’» In this extract, Lee demonstrates the role of Mayella in her family and how hard it is for her, especially since she is only nineteen and has seven brothers and sisters. She is like their mother: therefore like her father’s wife. Mayella needs to make a decision between being beat up by her father and losing the family’s honour or telling the truth and preventing Tom Robinson’s death. In the end she chooses to remain loyal to her family although it is clear that she is lying. When Atticus asks Mayella how her father treats her, she stumbles: « ‘He does tollable, ‘cept when-‘ […] ‘Except when he’s drinking?’ asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded. »…
Truly Mayella lacks power because of her class.¨He thought he’d be a hero, but all he got for his pain was… okay, we’ll convict this Negro but get back to your dump (Doc A). ¨ shows she has little power because of her class and where she lived. ¨ As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world… : white people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white… Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her (Doc E). ¨ says that she lacks a chance or power, because of where she lives. ¨Mayella looked from under lowered eyelids at Atticus, but she said to the judge. ´Long’s he keeps on callin´ me ma’am and sayin´ Miss Mayella. I don’t hafta take his sass, I ain’t called upon to take it (Doc C). ´¨ Talks about how unfairly Mayella thinks she was being treated. Because of her class she…
Earnest Hemingway states that “all things truly wicked start from innocence.” This quote applies to Mayella Ewell as she corrupted herself and her innocence throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Though Mayella may seem wholesome, she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing due to her part in the death of a virtuous, innocent man and then her part in the tormenting of the dead man’s wife. In chapter twenty-five, Scout realizes that “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed,” (Lee 323) while she was pondering how a clearly innocent man could be tried as guilty (Lee 323). This quote illustrates how Mayella seemingly did worse than kill a man; she also had him declared guilty of a false crime, staining his reputation. To outsiders it will seem as if he was righteously killed, and what…
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee). In the Maycomb County there is a lot of whites, blacks and even some mixed. There are some that are wealthy and some that are not. Some get along and others do not. Even in a small town, they all live so differently. Throughout Harper lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, hypocrisy, injustice and evil is envisioned in an adult society. Miss Gates and Lula contradict themselves. Atticus is harassed, Tom Robinson gets accused for a crime he did not commit. Bob Ewell tries to kill Scout and Jem and Maycomb is loaded with rumours of Boo Radley,…
Ewell said during the trial, “Well, Mayella was raisin‘ this holy racket so… I run up to th‘ window and I seen—” Mr. Ewell’s face grew scarlet. He stood up and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson. “—I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!” (Lee 231) Mr. Ewell does not show the respect of referring to Tom Robinson with his first name, he refers to him with utter disrespect and through pointing, in a court of law. This can only highlight the big theme of racism; when a man cannot grant the respect of referring to someone by their proper name, and has to resort to name calling. This indicates not only racism, but the segregation between classes, where white people were seen above African Americans and they were not treated as an equal, Mr. Ewell calls Atticus by his name, but refuses to call Tom Robinson as his name. The theme of racism gives insight on to the difficult lives of African Americans, at that time. This theme is portrayed by many characters, children and adults. In conclusion, racism is the utmost prominent theme throughout the whole novel, the theme teaches to not follow the mob, and treat everyone as an equal giving everyone the same opportunity to succeed in…
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, a majority of the characters faced life not being good for them at times. One character in the book that faced life being unfair is Tom Robinson. He was being accused of raping Mayella Ewell. He didn’t do anything to her,…
Even if all the evidence proves Tom to be innocent, the jury would be in favor of the Ewells because they are white. Tom Robinson would help Mayella with chores because it “looked like she didn’t have anybody to help her” (263). Because of this, Tom felt sorry for her. However, his feelings were invalidated when Mr. Gilmer exclaims, “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?” When Tom said he was sorry for Mayella, it implied he was better than her. In Maycomb County, a county divided along racial lines, a black person thinking he’s superior to any white person defies the status quo. The Ewells had been “the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations” (40). The Ewells, especially Bob Ewell, represent ignorance and white supremacy in To Kill a Mockingbird. Bob Ewell’s full name is Robert E. Lee Ewell (227); coincidentally, he was named after the general who commanded the Confederate army, or the army in favor of expanding slavery, during the Civil War. The Confederate army represented white supremacy and racial justice, as do the Ewells. Atticus says to his son, Jem, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (295). Even with the Ewells labeled as the “disgrace of Maycomb” (40), they are still seen in a higher position compared to Tom…
“Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death,” Billy Graham once said. In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus is a father and a lawyer, who lives with his children, Jem and Scout, and their cook, Calpurnia, in a town of Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a town populated with black and white people, where racism is apparent. White people feel they are superior than the black people and treat them poorly. Racism is evident when Tom Robinson lost the trial to Bob Ewell, because he was black, even though he is innocent. People were also being judged on appearance, or being treated improperly, like how people see the kind of person Boo Radley is in the beginning of the story. Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” is about injustice.…
A mockingbird is someone that is innocent and does no harm, with the exception of fear. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she has many mockingbirds in her story, but she has just as many defenders of mockingbirds too. Atticus Finch, a lawyer of Macomb defends people for a living, but he is also a nice man who sees the good in every person he meets. His children, Jem and Scout Finch, see the innocence in their father and when times are tough they protect him as much as they can. Judge Taylor, ,the local judge of Maycomb, is a white man who helps an innocent black man. Mayella Ewell, a low class resident of Maycomb makes the wrong decisions in life, but they are almost always driven by the fear of her father. Boo Radley, the basket case of Maycomb, harassed with negative words by other townspeople, but he never lets that…
Mayella Ewell is the first minor character I shall discuss; a beacon of racial prejudice and the injustice of the courthouses. She is considered to be trash along with the rest of the Ewell's; despite the fact that she is one of the few Ewell's who can read and write. As well as being literate she tries her best to make that most of what she's got, "the quote about the flowers she keeps". Despite her decency compared to the others in her family Mayella still only cares for her own wellbeing.…
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, racism, “Maycomb’s usual disease” (Lee To Kill a Mockingbird 117) sends Mayella Ewell “stark raving mad”(88). All of the fear surrounding Mayella Ewell drives her into madness. Sitting on her porch, Mayella sees Tom Robinson, an African American man, walking by and asks if he would “come up and help her a minute” (192-193). Since Mayella was a white female of course he agreed to. However, Mayella had some unknown feelings for Tom. When he entered her room to help her he stood on a chair to get a box off of the chiffarobe, she grabbed his leg which startled him and made him fall off the chair. After he fell she hugged the married man and proceeds to kiss him on the cheek exclaiming “kiss me back, nigger” (194). Realizing the situation he is in causes Tom tries to flee the house, but Mayella is standing in front of the door blocking his only exit while Bob Ewell is yelling “…you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya” (194). After Mayella hears her dad she understands all the criticism she would receive if anyone ever found out what she did, so she makes the situation look like Tom is raping her. Her fear drives her to lie to her father, and the rest of Maycomb County. Bob Ewell realizes that he can make money out of it since they are a lower class family, so he brings the case to court knowing he will win since he is persecuting a black man. Mayella’s terror that drives her into madness also drives the rest of Maycomb into madness, and even though Atticus Finch defended Tom Robinson the best he could, fear still stood in the way of truth.…