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Examples Of Mayella A Victim In To Kill A Mockingbird

Decent Essays

I agree with this statement to some extent because Mayella could be considered both a victim and a villain in Harper Lee’s novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (published in 1960). The actuality of being a poor white young adult in the deep south, a child of 7, without a strong head figure of the family, during the 1930’s makes her a victim of her time period because of her gender, her social class and the horrific abuse she goes through put her in a bad position for the rest of her. This would make her very vulnerable and a victim. Nevertheless, she would be considered a villain because she seduces Tom and forces herself on him and then despite knowing right from wrong and never changes her testimony despite knowing her actions consequences.
Mayella’s gender causes her to become a victim because she is unable to leave the abusive house since she has no source of income or potential husband to move in with, the family hardly get enough anyway since “their relief check was far from enough to feed the family” and their father “drank it up …show more content…

The author reveals she isn’t respected because she thinks that Atticus is “makin’ fun o’” her when he calls her “Miss Mayella”. Her father isolates her from people her age and so she doesn’t “know anyone near” her “age or older” so because she has no friends she doesn’t realize that this is how people talk in more formal situations. However it becomes evident that Atticus Is the only one who has even a morsel of respect for her since even her lawyer Mr. Gilmer only refers to her as Miss Mayella; and her father - the only other person she associates with clearly has no respect for her by the way that he treats her. This highlights that she is a victim because she has no escape, no respect and she’s stuck somewhere she doesn’t want to be; with people who don’t care about

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