Who Is Mayella Ewell's Struggles In To Kill A Mockingbird

Tragedy of Racism

Mayella Ewell is a poor white girl who lives with her alcoholic father and younger siblings. She was forced to be the caretaker of the whole family after her mom died. Despite her young age of 19, she must stay home to take care of the children and do house chores when she is supposed to study and play. She suffers from this isolated life of housekeeping, and she notices Tom Robinson, a black man who lives nearby and passes by her house everyday on his way to and from work. At first, she shows her interest upon him by asking him to help her to do chores. Good natured Tom pities her and helps without expecting any payments. There was no opportunity to show how much she loves Tom until she was able to save few nickels to send

During the trial, people testimonies how much Mayella was hurt. “‘Mr. Finch. I remember now she was bunged up on that side of the face.’” (Lee 178) “…her arms were bruised, and she showed me her neck. There were definite finger marks on her gullet—” “All around her throat? At the back of her neck?” “I’d say they were all around, Mr. Finch.” (Lee 179) This suggests that Mayella had many scars and wounds all over her body. If Tom is not the one who raped her, it is Bob who harmed her like this. Therefore, it can be predicted that Bob beat Mayella as usual, but more harshly to make her accuse

Although they are white, their poverty and bad reputation made their social status just a step above the black people. Bob Ewell is alcoholic and abusive, but he still wants to improve his family’s situation as a father. However, the fact that "he was the only man ever heard of who was fired from the WPA for laziness" (Lee 78) proves that he isn 't willing to earn it. But in accusing Tom Robinson, he finds what he believes is a brass ring. From his perspective, the town should think him as a hero for saving Maycomb 's white women from a ‘dangerous’ black man. He would have thought that defending his daughter by going to court should raise his family 's stature. If he fails to gain more respect from the community, Bob may have feared about some talks in the black community about white woman making a play for a married black man. Mayella would have been persuaded by Bob or she was maybe forced to believe so. Unfortunately, all of Ewell 's plans backfire. Although verdict says that Tom is guilty, Bob and his daughter are proven liars, and instead of improving his life, Ewell cements his family 's horrible reputation once and for