Mayella Ewell Character Analysis Essay

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, there was one character that Lee made sympathetic to the audience in a latent way. That character is Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell is the oldest daughter of Robert Lee Ewell. One of the ways Lee made Mayella Ewell sympathetic was by before introducing her in the storyline, Lee described Mayella's family situation in brief excerpts. As well as introducing one of her younger siblings that gave a clue on how the family’s behavior is like. So instead of introducing Mayella immediately, Lee had it so that she was briefly in the story itself and just told of what is happening to Mayella in the background and foreshadowing what she is dealing with.
The introduction of Mayella's younger sibling Burris Ewell …show more content…
Throughout the course of her novel Lee gave all background information about Mayella and her family as well as the kind of man her father is. With knowing that Mayella's family is not the most well off and that they must survive on relief checks provided from Maycomb county and what animals their father can catch for food. Lee also has the reader know that Mayella's father Bob is one of the worst man in the county for no one trusts his words and his tactics are underhanded. Mr. Ewell also uses his family’s relief checks to relieve his alcoholic splurges and that he is an abusive person who physically and mentally beats down on Mayella. However it what Lee does that really makes Mayella sympathetic is how she is an actually nice person and a great big sister. For one whole year it took Mayella to save enough money for all her siblings to be able to buy ice cream. That is how Lee made her sympathetic, by showing that Mayella is good at heart and is just in a bad situation at the time thanks to her father. Even though Mayella's actions throughout the story are not the best, the reader cannot help but pity and sympathize with her due to knowing how hard her life is at