Theme Of Rape In To Kill A Mockingbird

The 1930s was a very challenging time for america, it was the peak of the the Great Depression and the social oppression of women. The fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is centered around the political issues america faced. The novel takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb Alabama where we look at the case of Tom Robinson against Mayella and Bob Ewell. The story goes that Tom Robinson went into the Ewell household and took advantage of Mayella and beat her. Although Mayella was actually the perpetrator, she won the case and Tom Robinson was sentenced to prison. Although due to being a poor, uneducated woman whom is treated like an object, Mayella is not a powerful character.

Everybody has two different sides to him or her- one that is seen by others and one that is buried in their personal lives, completely hidden from others. People tend to perceive themselves as how they are seen by other people, but can open up or be exposed when they are put in that position. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, both of Mayella’s sides are evident. On the outside, she can be dismissed as a lying cheat, as she lied while on the witness stand. But, when she is forced to open up during her testimony, her true self can be seen. Some feel that what she exposes is why full sympathy should be shown towards her. Though some sympathy could be shown towards Mayella because of her abusive father and loneliness, her behavior towards

Imagine that your living in the 1930s, you’re a white woman, and you had just gotten “raped” by a black man or group of black men. This exact scenario happened in the critically acclaimed book To Kill a Mockingbird and in the real-life court case deemed the Scottsboro trial. Which in both the book and the court case, the characters, and people were shaped and influenced by society to become victims and accusers. This paper is going compare and contrast how the fictional character Mayella and the non-fictional plaintiff Victoria Price and Ruby Bates as painted victims and accusers by society.

Well-known book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, centers on one main theme: It is a sin to kill a mockingbird. This theme on its own is not entirely literal, but it has a very important meaning that is developed throughout the book. Many events in the book bring the theme to light and unfolds more and more as the story progresses.

Mayella was powerless in gender because she was always abused. “Mayella was beaten savagely by someone who lead almost exclusively with his left” (Document B). Based on this quote it shows that Mayella’s father had beaten her sexual, verbally, and physically. Tom Robinson also was crippled in his left hand which shows her father beat her. During the trial Atticus questions Mayella about if she loves her father and she response “he tollable, except when he is drinking” (Document B). Mayella father must have been an alcoholic and raped her during the month of November. Mayella wants to try to protect her dad from getting accused of raping her when it actually happened and falsely accuse Tom Robinson.

Mayella Ewell is a white woman in “To Kill A Mockingbird” that lives behind a dumpster. One reason she does not have power is her gender. Mayella is a woman, and being a woman in that time period was

“I guess rumors are more exciting than the truth.”-Venus Williams. People spread rumors because they feel that it will interest them more than the truth. In some ways, creating rumors can give people a reason to for them to believe that something is more flared than what the actual truth is. In other words, this means that people elaborate and stretch the actual truth in a situation, rather than believing the astounding truth. Often times, this helps people compress the unknown, and fill in the gaps to the clues that don’t make sense. Not understanding the unknown is hard, and leads to people jumping to conclusions when they don 't even know exactly what happened. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, rumors spread throughout the town creating stereotypes and changing many people’s once honorable reputation and unfairly forcing them to alter their way of life forever.

In society, people would usually associate with others who are the most similar to them since they tend to feel more comfortable around them. For instance, in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, is a story of Mayella Ewell who is a poor, white woman living in a racist environment during the 1930s. Some people will say that Mayella isn’t sincerely powerful and others might disagree. On the contrary, Mayella doesn’t have much capability when it comes down to her low financial status and her gender; however, her race is what makes her highly powerful.

Innocence is a word used to describe someone 's purity. Children are prime examples of innocence, as they don’t have judgments and don’t understand mature topics. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader can interpret innocence as the growing up of the children. Specifically, Jem Finch showed a loss of innocence as he grew up. He showed his loss of innocence by not playing games, his more mature use of words and body language, and his different view of the world around him. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem Finch goes through change and his innocence of the world is lost as the book progresses.

In addition to her being poor she is also a women which still not help her case. “Except when nothin’ said Mayella “ I said me does tollable”. Mr Ewell leaned back again; Except when he's drinking asked atticus so gently that Mayella nodded”. (Doc.B). Mayella concluded that oMr.Ewell is tolerable unless intoxicated, also making it easier to prove Tom Robinson didn’t hit her. Therefore knowing that Mayella is a woman it indicates that she is not the strongest in the household.

The fictional story, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee includes an evil character, Bob Ewell. The story takes place in Maycomb, a southern town in Alabama in the 1930s. The Ewell family is among the poorest in Maycomb, and is low on Maycomb’s social hierarchy. The family name is not very reputable. Bob Ewell is a drunken father of the family. In the part two of the book, Tom Robinson, a black man is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The social norm of this time was to respect whites, and treat blacks differing. Therefore, it was a sin for Tom to disrespect Mayella. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and respected white man fought for Tom and bravely tried as his lawyer. On trial, there was evidence that Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father beat, and raped her. Bob committed unrightful actions to his daughter,

In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”, the issue of Southern Womanhood is brought up many times throughout the novel. Lee uses many different characters to help show how she viewed Southern Womanhood. Specifically she uses, Scout, Mayella Ewell, and Scout’s Aunt Alexandra. In "To Kill A Mockingbird", Harper Lee uses specific characters to show how negative of an impact Southern Womanhood used to have.

In the successful novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the character, Mayella Ewell, is portrayed as a victim and villain. She is a complex character who can be viewed as a lonely victim of poverty and neglect. She is also a 19 year old adult who falsely accused a man of a crime he didn’t commit. A victim is a person who feels powerless, needs lots of attention, and is passive. A villain is one who is trying to accomplish a mission, acting on personal desires, and is hiding something. Mayella Ewell is a victim.

How do you define innocence? Is there someone out in the world who is purely innocent? To understand innocence you should look at what a mockingbird does, because all they do is sing. In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus and Miss Maudie teach Scout and Jem that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds are an important symbol because they represent goodness and innocence. In this book, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are two innocent men, similar to mockingbirds, who get taken advantage of due to their innocence.

Bob Ewell, is Mayella’s father, the villain of the novel and most figures that struts hatred to the African Americans. Bob Ewell has no money, no education, he wants his life to be better, and he pours his anger on whoever is weaker than him. He bashes his daughter when he discovered her intentions towards Tom Robinson; he also tried to hurt Scout and Jem."I see that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" (84) Even the language he uses declares his intentions and anger towards the blacks. In the white men world, Bob Ewell is a poor, uneducated and powerless white man; but in the black men world, he is powerful; in his mind, he thinks that the town of Maycomb should make him a hero; he saved a white woman from a black villain. Bob Ewell’s real intention is not to defend his daughter and himself; his real intention is gaining attention, he hates that he is nothing and wants the world to shape around him. He execrated Atticus because Atticus is better than him and educated and rich and a man with morals. At the End of the trial, the Ewells unfold to be lairs, Bob Ewell