8/12/2019 Mayella Ewell - Revised

1/2

Vineeth Yeevani

The Ewells in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, are considered by the townspeople

to be disreputable people. This act of categorizing family members into one group can have

disastrous consequences on a family. For example, the townspeoples views of the Ewells

possibly caused the demise of the family in the first place. However, some of the Ewells rise

above the norm for their family and become responsible Maycomb citizens.

The townspeople arent necessarily wrong in their views of the Ewells because they have

been conditioned by so many generations of disreputable Ewells. The Ewells live on the edge of

Maycomb counties garbage dump, and essentially, all of their belongings come from that. Bob

Ewell certainly doesnt help the view of his family. He is rowdy and very violent, as shown by

the beatings he deals his children. Also, he is very threatening, such as when he tells Atticus that

he is going to kill him for certain. On top of all of these horrible qualities, he cant hold any jobs

and because of this, his family can never rise out of poverty. The Ewell children dont help their

familys reputation, since they, like, their father are always running around and never going to

school. All in all, the Ewells conditions make them seem less than human to the residents of

Maycomb.

Mayella Ewell, was very different compared to the rest of her family. She always kept

herself clean and was responsible with the meager money her father brought in. She also was

nice to African-American people and didnt view them as trash. Even though many

circumstances should have conformed Mayella Ewell to the mold that her family's reputation

entails, she is still a responsible citizen.

8/12/2019 Mayella Ewell - Revised

2/2

The consequences of her very different outlook on life causes much of the book to take

place. To begin with, Mayella Ewell was always treated the same as African-American people

were treated during that period in the south. This lead her to feel very different about African-

Americans than many other people felt at the time. She treated them almost as her equal. As a

natural consequence of this, she started to like Tom Robinson, and broke the time honored

tradition that no white woman should ever touch a black man. Because of doing this, she was

pulverized by her father and had to lie about what happened to her. She has to go to court and is

disgraced in public for what she did. Yet, after all this, she practically admitted in open court that

she tempted Tom Robinson and she initiated the attack and defied what all the people in that

courtroom thought. Because most people believed that the Ewells are pathological liars and

thought the Mayella Ewell was the exact same as the rest of them, when she admitted the truth

about what happened, she showed the townspeople that even an Ewell could be good.

In the beginning, the citizen of Maycomb viewed the Ewells as trash, but their views

were radically changed by the actions of Mayella Ewell. If Mayella hadnt admitted what had

happened to her, then the townspeople's views would have been vindicated. However she did

admit what she did and how she blamed Tom Robinson and proved unequivocally that she was a

responsible citizen. In todays world, and in history, many wars have been fought over

perceptions that people have. Included under this is racism and sexism. To Kill A Mockingbird,

is a story about love for other people, and people can only love if they dont and arent judged

based on things they cant control. Mayella Ewell embodies the fact that peoples perceptions

can have potential disastrous consequences.