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Mayella Friendship Quotes

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Factor: Friendship

During the 1930’s, whites in the South were extremely racist towards blacks. Because Mayella, a poor white girl, had no friends, she invited a negro, Tom Robinson into her home. She didn’t care that he was black; she just wanted to kiss him and talk to him because she had never had the opportunity to interact with an adult before. Mayella did not know what the meaning of friendship was, but she did know that she wanted one. She tried to kiss Tom Robinson, but he wouldn’t accept her advances. Her father then came home and he saw Mayella trying to kiss Tom. Her father then, presumably, beat her and called Heck Tate to tell him a story about how Tom Robinson raped Mayella. Even though Tom did not rape her, she didn’t stick up for him because of her fear of her father and her hurt at being rejected by Tom. If she would have known what friendship was, she would not have lied and pressed charges against him. She would have stood up for him.

Quotation: “‘Miss Mayella,’ said …show more content…

She was either busy helping around the dump or watching her siblings. Closed doors symbolize Mayella’s life and never having the chance to make friends and being isolated by her family. Mayella’s situation is like closed doors because she is closed in and never has opportunities to hang out with people her own age. Nobody wants to hang out with her because of who she is. She lives behind the dump and with an abusive father. She thought Atticus was making fun of her when he was calling her ‘Miss’ and ‘ma'am’, which shows that she hasn’t been treated with much respect and doesn’t know how to give respect to others. She is also very uneducated. She never had the chance to go to school. The way she talked and the way she didn’t understand words like “friend” in the trial shows just how uneducated she was. Growing up around no one except family is also a closed door for Mayella’s capability to make

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