Robert Smith once said “If you feel alienated from people around you, it's because no one tries to understand you.” Countless characters are terribly alienated from their own societies and their own communities. By using alienated characters (typically because of gender, race, class, creed or another characteristic) authors show values of a society. Mayella Ewell is alienated because of her family name, where she lives and how unsocial she is. The author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, shows how the town of Maycomb has the assumptions and moral values of a social hierarchy, strong prejudice and are very concerned about their ‘image’ by alienating Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell is an alienated outsider in Maycomb because of her family …show more content…
The Ewell’s live behind the town dump in an old run down cabin. The cabin used to be a negro cabin, negroes are at the bottom of the hierarchy. If the Ewells, who are white, live in an old negro cabin, their financial and social status must be around rock bottom. In addition the whole yard is cluttered with scraps of metal and garbage. There are items just thrown around the lawn such as a Model-T Ford, a discarded dentist’s chair, an ancient icebox, and useless items such as old shoes, worn-out table radios, picture frames, and fruit jars. The children survive by living off illegally killed animals and searching through the trash, “"The varmints had a lean time of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a thorough gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry (those that were not eaten) made the plot of ground around the cabin look like the playhouse of an insane child...." (Lee 228). Mayella Ewell demonstrates the prejudice in the town of Maycomb. The people of Maycomb don’t want anything to do with the Ewells because they are "white trash". The upper class people of Maycomb are prejudiced against the Ewells because they are beneath their social status. Even the black people of Maycomb, even though they are below the Ewells, will have nothing to do with the Ewells because they are …show more content…
Mayella is the surrogate mother for the Ewell family, with Mrs. Ewell dead. Mayella has to take care of the children and her father. Mayella is all alone. Mayella can't go to school because she needs to take care of her siblings, especially when her father doesn't care about them and spends his welfare checks on alcohol. Mayella lives in the town dump, and already suffers the consequences from it, to spend time together children typically hang out at eachothers houses. Mayella cannot invite company to come to her house. Mayella wouldn’t have time for friends either, she is stuck with all the household responsibilities and is in charge of the children. Mayella is so antisocial that when Atticus Finch was being kind to her she thought he was sassing her. Atticus was just being polite and calling her Ma’am and Miss, and it angered Mayella. Mayella didn’t know that that was how women were talked to, which shows how little interactions she’s had with people. Then Mr. Finch asked her who her friends are, “The witness frowned as if puzzled. ‘Friends?’ ‘Yes, don’t you know anyone near your age, or older, or younger? Boys and girls? Just ordinary friends?’ Mayella’s hostility, which had subsided to grudging neutrality, flared again. ‘You makin‘ fun o’me again, Mr. Finch’ ” (Lee 245) Mayella is so antisocial that when Mr. Finch asked her if she had friends she took it as an insult. Atticus questions Mayella about her lack of
Who now live like pigs next to the African Americans which is the only class they are above because of the racial discrimination that is present in Maycomb. TKAM is about the rape trial of Mayella Ewell who accused Tom
One day in Maycomb, Alabama during the great depression a young girl named Mayella Ewell was raped. This shows Mayella is one powerful young girl in the story To Kill A Mockingbird. It will show how she is power through class, race, and gender. First Mayella is powerful through her class ranking. In the story it said that the “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin…”.
Mayella was born in the lowest class. Being poor in Maycomb wasn’t uncommon but as poor as she was, it was a little much. Mayella tried to be normal compared to her family. When being described, “Mr. Ewell had a scalded look; as if an overnight soaking had deprived him of protective layers of dirt… Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean,” (Lee 239) Mayella tried to be a decent person unlike the family she was born into.
Contradicting Poisons There are two sides to every person, what society sees and who they truly are. Someone who does not live in the traditionally and became a social outcast could easily be the most benevolent, selfless person, but had not been given the chance before they were silenced by the world around them. Such is the case in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a story showing the relentlessness of hatred and humanity. Lee’s creation represents that isolation from humanity creates the most humane people.
In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird Mayella Ewell's is a powerful young teenager. In the 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama Mayella set news to the small town, she made allegations of rape against Tom Robinson. Mayella is as powerful as the ocean when it takes you underwater. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird will show Mayella’s power by using Class, Race, and Gender.
Life as An Outcast in Maycomb County Essay Assignment Draft Outcasts have very influential roles in the development on a child’s thoughts and values. For instance in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, current and former neighbours of Scout give her valuable insight into the lives of others from the perspective of an outcast. In particular, both Dolphus Raymond and Arthur Radley directly display the importance of treating others as equals. Dolphus Raymond, a white Negro-lover, explains to Scout that Maycomb County’s prejudice has forced him to fake being constantly drunk so others would not bother him on his non-racist views.
Mayella can not use class to help her gain power because of her lack of money. She lives in an old Negro cabin behind the town garbage dump. “Its windows were merely open spaces in the walls... What passed for a fence was bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks, and tool shafts…. Enclosed by this barricade was a dirty
During Tom Robinson’s testimony, Scout had epiphany. “As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella must have been the loneliest girl in the world” was what she had said. Mayella’s loneliness can be clearly seen by anyone who talks to her. Furthermore, she does not know what it feels like to be treated politely. For example, when Atticus Finch calls her ma’am, she asks him to stop giving her attitude and then proceeds to yell at him.
What many people don’t realize is how much of a mockingbird Mayella is. The reader follows only a small portion of Mayella’s story, but it is substantial enough for the reader to identify her as a victim of abuse. Mayella was abused by her father throughout her life and becomes manipulated to pin the blame for her own actions on the innocent. It becomes a chain reaction of sorts. Though Mayella isn’t described in vivid detail, she was an influential character in the book as well as a victim of the evil of Maycomb.
Because she is poor, people think she can not take care of herself or other things, but she can and tries, therefore proving that she has power. One might think that Mayella take care of the children of the house as well, not just herself and the
In the book it states, “They come first day every year and and then leaves. (Lee 36). They are not like the other kids and get shunned for not going to school from the town. The second reason the Ewell’s could be described as a disgrace is the town saw them as nothing. Maycomb shunned the family and did not care about them.
In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee took the minor character of Mayella Ewell and made her into a sympathetic role to her readers in a latent way. Mayella's life at home is told through the story's background and foreshadowing references. This is how Lee made Mayella memorable enough to the reader to know who she is and her family situation without needing her point of view of her side of the story. Once Mayella enters the storyline, her actions will become understandable to the reader and generate sympathy. One way Lee makes Mayella a sympathetic character is how before entering her into the story, one of Mayella's younger siblings was introduced.
The whites don’t accept the Ewells because they live like pigs. The blacks don’t accept the Ewells because they are white. Scout stated, “... Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world… When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her… Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her.
This essay aims to investigate the literary context of Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) from four different perspectives. The scope of this essay does not only include the context from historical, cultural and social points of views, but also the significance of Lee 's early life is considered. The essay explores deeply the novel 's events, characters and main themes, which can all be related to the literary context. This is why the research question of this essay is “A Study of Literary Context in Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird”. To Kill A Mockingbird never fails to amaze a reader because of its audacity, as it brings out many controversial issues from 1930s America.
I will characterize the Ewells because they are a disgrace to Maycomb. The Ewells are a disgrace to Maycomb because they do a lot of things that are not socially acceptable or are against the law. None of the Erwells work and the children do not go to school so they make a very small income. Their dad is a drunk so whenever they do earn money their dad spends it on alcohol and not food for the children. Their dad also illegally hunts out of season but the town accepts it because the children might not get any food otherwise.