The different stories were obvious between Mayella Ewell and Bob. The different takes on the incident leaves suspicion about whether the facts are true or not. Mayella narrates that her father ran in, without knowledge of the raper. Bob says that he runs in to find Mr. Robinson on top of Mayella. Although the suspects seem guilty, because of the racial profiles, Mr. Robinson is still being accused. Mr. Robinson is left handed, making the bruise on Mayella's eye hard for him to injure. Mayella exclaims “That nigger yonder took advantage of me an’ if you fine fancy gentlemen don’t wanta do nothin’ about it then you’re all yellow stinkin’ cowards.” Mayella is a sister of 7, and her mother is dead, Mayella is probably looking for attention and because whites have more power, she probably feels that accusing a black, it would be easier to get away with.
Eliza
Mayella and Robert Ewell do not have corroborating accounts of the night of November twenty-first. This fact makes it quite clear to all that the Ewells are lying to the court. It is also clear that Mayella is nervous and does not take the care that her father does to get her story straight. While in the witness stand, Mayella said,"No I don't recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me." This quote shows that she is jittery and insecure with the fact that she must lie in front of the whole courthouse. Mayella often accuses Atticus of mocking her, which shows how uncomfortable with the whole court scene she was. Her father, Robert E. Lee Ewell, on the other hand seems to be mighty comfortable in front of the judge and the lawyers. He even goes so far as to make a few, very rude, jokes. But it seems that while Mr. Ewell was on the stand, his daughter Mayella was not paying very close attention as, I'm sure, he instructed her to. Mr. Ewell is very confident that he will win this case, and he tries to make sure that Atticus can't prove him wrong. Mayella was called to the stand after her father, which put an enormous amount of pressure on her to follow his story exactly. The expectations set out for Mayella by her father were so grand that she sort of cracked under the pressure, and did not corroborate with his account.
ReplyDeleteJillian
In addition to Jill and Eliza's suggestions, I think there is another reason why Mayella accused Tom Robinson of raping her. When Atticus was making his last statement at the end of the first trial, he stated that "she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her" and she only accused him "in an effort to get rid of her own guilt". This guilt is the guilt of Mayella breaking the code of the Maycomb County which is that whites shouldn't associate with Negros. Mayella tempted Tom Robinson. This directly violates the code. So the only thing Mayella could do in order to still be accepted in the Maycomb society, was to get rid of Tom Robinson and "she must destroy the evidence of her offense". With this, i half disagree with Eliza when she said, "Mayella is probably looking for attention and because whites have more power, she probably feels that accusing a black, it would be easier to get away with." I disagree because i don't think she is looking for attention from whites, she just wanted to have somebody who cared intimately about her. Mayella didn't do anything wrong, she didn't break any law, and even Atticus agrees and doesn't pity her.
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