Mayella In To Kill A Mockingbird

One would think Mayella is powerful, but think of the things in her life she can't control. Mayella is just a poor farm girl whom which her father controls her life. Her father Bob Ewell is abusive and has sexually harassed Mayella her whole life. Mayella can not get away from it. She doesn't have any friends or family other than her father. People feel sorry for her, all she wants is to be respected and have friends, but she can't because of her father. To try and get power Mayella accused Tom Robinson of rape and abuse. Tom Robinson is a black man with a crippled right arm. Mayella took Tom to court and he was proven that he couldn't have beaten Mayella because of his arm but he was still sent to jail. When he tried to escape he was shot and killed. Mayella still had to deal with her father beating her so she didn't get away from him like she wanted. Therefore Mayella does not have control of her life, so she is not powerful.

“...He is tollable, cept when-...” (Lee,Chapter 18) Mayella stopped in the midst of her sentence, because of how her father looked at her. Mayella knows she messed up when she kept going and her father sat up and looked at her waiting for her to finish but she didn't because she knew she would be punished. This proves that Mayella can't even control what she …show more content…
The fact that an African American in that time period was a bad thing. When Mayella asked Tom to come and help her with her chores and he said he felt bad for her. She was just trying to frame him for rape when he didn't do anything to her she was kissing and hugging up on him when her father caught them. The court believed what Mayella said over what Tom said because he was African American. In that time period that was counted as disrespect. For a black man to feel sorry for a white girl. This is another reason why Mayella does not have