Mayella Ewell To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

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 Maycomb, Alabama, Mayella Ewell accused an African American man, Tom Robinson with allegations of rape. Mayella was powerful back in the 1930 because of the Jim crow laws, considering that she was a white woman. Although Mayella was so poor that she lived behind the town dump. Mayella was just about as poor as the African Americans, it quotes “White people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among the pigs.” ("DBQ: Is Mayella Powerful?" 21). That explains that Mayella could not afford to live and also have many of the things she wanted. On the other hand, Mayella was an white woman going to court against an African American man.

In 1930’s Maycomb Alabama, a young woman is stirring up a sleepy town by accusing an African American man of rape. Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman has wrongly accused Tom Robinson of sexually assaulting her in her own home. Her testimony, as well as her fathers’, have gaping holes in them. Their stories do not coincide, and it is even implied that Mayella’s father may have been sexually abusing her.(DBQ Mayella page 15 Chapters 18 and 20) The lack of sufficient evidence and Tom Robinson’s claim that Mayella had made advances toward him should have been enough for the jury to find Tom not guilty, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, the jury believed Mayella’s deceitful testimony, and Tom was sent to jail, which ultimately led to his death. Mayella used her position in society to manipulate the court, and dispose of the only evidence of her mistake. Mayella Ewell is powerful as defined by class, gender, and especially race.

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.

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

Lee implies that people learn lessons through life experiences that school can ever teach. Throughout this novel, Atticus taught his kids many lessons that was hard for them to hear at times, but it later on helped them in the story. Or it helped them grow up and mature. On page 40 of To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus was explaining to Scout that Miss.Caroline was new and didn’t know anyone, and she especially didn’t know the Cunningham’s story, Atticus states, “Atticus said… but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part” (40). This quote by Atticus is meant to explain to Scout that Miss. Caroline just made an honest human mistake. He tried to get Scout to realize that if he put herself in Miss.Caroline’s shoes then she might better understand the confusion. Obviously you can’t really be in her shoes, but he said it figuratively to show her why it was important to give her another chance, or at least try to be nice and listen. Atticus taught this to Scout at home later on that night. At her school after that she tried to just get by in her class. Lee also shows mainly throughout that the school system doesn’t help when it comes to teaching children life lessons. As shown in the earlier quote Atticus, had told Scout to jump in Walter’s shoes, and walk around in it. This other quote shows how Scout actually takes into consideration of Atticus’ words, and chooses to not bother Jem because she tried to imagine what it had

The Maycomb jury accused Tom Robinson guilty of rape of Mayella Ewell, not because they truly thought he was guilty; he was wrongfully convicted because of our town’s long time “honor code” of our society. Our “honor code” is nothing but a meaningless, unbroken rule saying that all whites are infallible, while all negroes are immoral and can’t be trusted around anyone. If a white person were to break this “code”, that person would be considered an outcast in our town. Of course, as I’ve said before, some whites and negroes are immoral and can’t be trusted around anyone. Take the Ewells, for example. Maycomb despises them, and barely keeps them isolated from the rest of town. They represent Maycomb’s worst side, but their word is still taken over a black man’s word, simply because they’re white. None of the jury members wanted to risk their own reputations and be

There are no better examples of racism and discrimination than what happened during the trial of Tom Robinson. The trial began with Sheriff Tate saying that Bob Ewell came to him after Tom run away and he claims that Mayella was beating up on her right side. That could never be done by Tom Robinson since his left arm does not work, “ His left arm was full twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shriveled hand, and from as far away as the balcony I could see that it was no use to him.” Also, Atticus made Bob Ewell write down his name to prove to Judge Taylor that he was left-handed and he was the one who raped Mayella. It took the judge several hours before making the final verdict, even though everything favors the innocence of Tom Robinson, he was still sentenced guilty. Nothing could save Tom Robinson, Atticus had given all the pieces of evidence and details needed to prove him not guilty and it was more than clear that Bob Ewell raped Mayella instead of Tom Robinson, just like Atticus said: “ She was white, she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our

“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

During Tom Robinson’s trial, the strong prejudice of Maycomb County and the negative effects of its social stratification were clearly demonstrated. Whilst Tom Robinson is innocent of the crime of rape, he gave the Caucasians more reason to convict him on the basis of daring to feel sorry for a Caucasian - it is not expected that a negro (considered as being a part of the lowest class of society, event lower than the ‘white trash’) could feel sorry for a Caucasian and the Caucasians could not accept such a presumption.

As Stephen King once said, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, Jean Louise Finch, a young girl who also goes by Scout, experiences many things such as racism, friends, and family. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who is sacrificing his reputation to defend a black man, Tom Robinson. Scout and her friends take it upon themselves to uncover the mystery of Boo Radley. In this book the mockingbirds represent innocence. Many characters take on the role of the “mockingbird". Exploring Lee’s title, to kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence.

The ambition of oneself to pursue justice and righteousness may result in prosecution. In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, and movie "A Time to Kill" by Joel Schumacher, each demonstrate one’s open-mindedness and forward thinking leads to penalization through protagonists Atticus Finch and Jake Brigance. Both egalitarians take the position as an attorney for an African American and are prosecuted in the process.

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

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (pg. 119.) Miss Maudie spoke the previous quote with deep thought going into each and every word. She wasn't just trying to teach Scout a lesson, but she wanted there to be a powerful meaning behind it. Miss Maudie's main purpose was to stress that you shouldn't kill something that is doing no harm. Everyday "mockingbirds" are killed, broke down, and mistreated by society.

The story, in the eyes of two innocent children Scout and her brother Jem, of the discrimination and hypocrisy throughout the town. Maycomb County, Alabama, faces an African American’s injustice while the children learn valuable lessons from their father, Atticus and their housemaid Calpurnia, during the Great Depression. All the while, we are learning from it. To Kill a Mockingbird teaches us the lessons of morale, justice and equality.