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Examples Of Compassion In To Kill A Mockingbird

555 Words3 Pages

Just like respect, compassion is earned and not given. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, A young woman named Mayella Ewell who is the daughter of an alcoholic widower lives in a small town in Alabama named Maycomb behind the town’s dump during the great depression. Tom Robinson, a black man living in the same town as Mayella, is being tried for rape after being accused by Mayella and her father Bob. Mayella’s accusation has had detrimental impacts on Tom’s family and overall life which is formed on the account of a white woman’s word versus a black man’s word. Mayella does not deserve compassion as her accusations destroyed a family. Mayella Ewell uses her status as a white woman to enforce an accusation of rape that does not warrant compassion. When Scout and Jem, two children of the defense attorney, go to a black church with their caretaker, the reverend is collecting donations when he announces, “You all know of Brother Tom Robinson’s trouble. He has …show more content…

The collection taken up today and for the next three Sundays will go to Helen -- his wife, to help her out at home” (Lee 160).” By Mayella Ewell falsely accusing Tom of those heinous crimes, Tom’s wife is unable to provide for her children as her reputation has been destroyed at the hands of Mayella’s vendetta against those of African-American descent. Because of this, the people of Mrs. Robinson’s church are asked to give money to her as she is unable to provide for her family due to the constraints put on women at that time period as her husband is now alienated from the town. While Mayella is on the stand testifying against Tom Robinson, she exhibits great signs of arrogance and disregard for anyone in the room other than herself to force sympathy to be given

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