Is Mayella Ewell Sympathetic

We have all felt sympathy towards others during our lifetime. We have all been told ¨to put yourself in someone else's shoes.¨ Sympathy for others is a difficult thing to accomplish, but once we feel it, it's even harder to forget. It is an emotional response that includes understanding, and being touched by the suffering of another. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell is a sympathetic character, because she is lonely, defenseless, and poor.

The Ewell children only came to school on the first day each year. Mayella never had any friends because of her school attendance. She had no one her age to talk to and no one to care for her. No one to share her secrets and feelings to. Imagine walking down the school hall, and everyone stares at you differently. Some feel pity, others feel disgust, and you feel ashamed. ¨As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even

lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her.¨ Because Mayella is considered poor white trash, whites don't want anything to do with her and because she is white, blacks don't want anything to do with her either. Mayella has no one to rely on. ¨She reached up an´ kissed me ´side of th´ face. She says she never kissed a grown man before an´ she might as well kiss a n*****. She says, what her papa do to her don´t count. She says, ´Kiss me back, n*****´.¨ Mayella yearned for love so badly, because no one ever loved her back.
At the age of 19, Mayella Ewell´s future is already planned. She will stay with her family, act as a mother to her younger siblings, and continue to be sexually, physically, and verbally abused by her father, Bob Ewell. In Tom Robinson's testimony, he told the jury what Bob Ewell said to Mayella after he saw that his daughter was trying to kiss a black man. ¨Tom Robinson shut his eyes tight. He says you goddamn whore, I´ll kill ya.¨ Mayella is scared of her father- he is violent towards her and others. She has already been beaten for kissing Tom Robinson, so Mayella knows her father would do way more if she told the police who really hit her. Mayella doesn't lie to protect her father, she lies to protect herself from him.
The Ewells were known as the lowest of the low amongst the whites in Maycomb. ¨The disgrace of Maycomb for three generations¨. The Ewells lived in a shack near the county dump and were considered human trash. Mayella was doomed the moment she was born a Ewell. "Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No economic fluctuations changed their status--- people like the Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths of a depression. No truant officer could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings." Her father was a drunk, and the little money he received, was spent on liquor- not food for his children. Maycomb ignored the fact that they hunted illegally, because if they didn't, the Ewells would starve. "Against the fence, in a line, were six chipped enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson. had Miss Maudie deigned to permit a geranium on her premises. People said they were Mayella Ewell's." In an unappealing, dirt poor environment, Mayella brings a form of beauty and hope. Even though she is less fortunate she still dreams of a better reality.
One may argue that Mayella Ewell is not a sympathetic character because she lied about Tom Robinson raping her.

¨A young girl walked to the witness stand. As she raised her hand and swore that the evidence she gave would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help her God, she seemed somehow fragile-looking, but when she sat facing us in the witness chair she became what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor.¨ Even though her lies put an innocent man in jail to eventually get killed, Mayella's reason was to protect herself from her father. Mayella is frightened of what her father can do, so she lies in front of the jury. Yes, she puts an innocent man in jail, but did she have a choice? Her testimony seemed scripted and practiced, like her father told her exactly what to say to the jury. Mayella knows she is lying and covering for her father, but she is afraid of what he may do to her if she doesn't follow his instructions. Mayella Ewell lies with a necessary

purpose.
Mayella Ewell has been through alot in her 19 years. Her family is dirt poor and uneducated, he alcoholic father, Bob Ewell, sexually, physically, and verbally abuses her, and she has nobody to love or care for her. The only thing that gives Mayella hope and beauty is her red geraniums outside the Ewell shack. Mayella was lonely and desperate so she learned for love, even from a black man. When she was called to testify on the witness stand, she did nothing but lie, so she could protect herself and the people in her life. So in conclusion, Even though Mayella Ewell lied on the witness stand, she is still a sympathetic character.