Post twice (4+ sentences each). At least one of your posts should be in response to a classmate.
- The first description of Mayella is that “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” (239). How is this description contradictory? How is it fitting given her testimony? How is she both “fragile” and toughened?
- Why does Mayella think Atticus is “sass[ing]” her (243)? What does her misunderstanding reveal about Mayella and her life?
- Again, Atticus asks the witness (here, Mayella) a number of questions that are clearly going to be important in making his case, but he doesn’t state the significance of them yet. Identify one or more important pieces of information that are revealed and make a prediction about how they will help Atticus make his case.
- In what ways do you feel sympathy for Mayella? In what ways don’t you?
- Lee writes, “Somehow, Atticus had hit her hard in a way that was not clear to me, but it gave him no pleasure to do so” (252). Connect this statement to any other Atticus moment in the novel.
Ms Bularzik's Blog 
I fell bad for Mayella in a few ways. First of all, she is living in a run down home with an extreemly poor and abusive family. Living like this must be terrible. As she says in the chapter, she has no friends. Having no friends must be boring when you are looking for something to do. I also don’t feel bad for Mayella. She was the one who started this whole court case. It was her fault that Tom Robinson was put on trial to loose. Mayella is a terrible person for doing that to someone so innocent.
Agree with Owen when he said he does feel bad and doesn’t feel bad. I feel bad because she lives in such terrible conditions that she thinks Atticus is sassily her when he’s actually just being polite and trying to make her feel comfortable. She also didn’t go to school and that’s really sad because there’s pretty much nothing left forher to do when she gets older. I also feel bad for her because her dad is a drunk and that’s just a real downer. I don’t really feel bad for her when she’s in court though. As we all know Mr. Ewell obviously beat her and Atticus is killing her with all these questions and she just doesn’t know what to do, but I don’t feel bad. She set herself up for this and all she needs to do is tell the truth and it’ll be fine.
I agree with Owen that she does not have a good a situation but it is really hard to feel bad for her. She is puting Tom’s life at risk knowing that he probably did not rape her. I agree that does make her a horrible person. Therefore I feel little sympathy for Mayella
I agree with Owen that she does not have a good situation at all. Mayella is probably always scared that if she does something wrong that her dad with hit her which makes her try to be perfect. Also, Mayella probably has no friends because she is sacred to bring them home to her dad and she is probably embarrassed about her family because they live behind a dump and they are really poor. I think her dad made her due this whole court case beucase he wants to see Tom Robinson go down for something that no one knows about because they obviously have past history that is not to pleasant at all. Mayella probably just does what her dad tells her in fear that he will beat her or even kill her because one day he will take the abusive too far and kill her by accident.
Owen, I agree with your analysis. Mayella should not have put Tom on trial if he did not do anything wrong. Knowing that he was most likely going to be convicted. I also agree with the fact that you feel symphateic for her because she does not have a lot. But, at the sake time, does not mean that she has to lie about people.
Mayella thinks atticus is sassing her because he is calling her mam. Mayella has probably only been called mam in a ssarcastic way that’s why she thinks she’s being sassed. This shows previously in her life she has been mistreated by men. Those men have had no respect for women and that is where this confusion is drawn from.
I agree with this statement. In addition to disrespect, she has probably been teased and harassed because of her family members. She is a Ewell, and because of that people look down on her and probably don’t see any reprocusions in their future based on how they treat her. Because the Ewells are the poorest family in town, they probably couldn’t afford as good lawyers, if they were to go to court, and that’s assuming they could find the time to press charges. Mayella is a victim of sexism and classism.
I agree with Brendan. The use of the word man really effects mayella mentally. And he is doing this to get her confusd so she xould slip up.
I agree with Brendon and Rudy that she has never been formally called Miss Mayella, as she has grown up in a household where formality has been long since anihilated. I would like to add on to Rudy’s suggestion that she has never gone to court, as her father never has, and has never been to any other place where she can be treated fairly and like a lady.
I agree with Owen I also feel bad for Mayella. She is going thorough a time where she has been beaten. But I also don’t agree she should. E in court for what she did. She needs to learn for what she has done and learn from her mistakes
I have never been in a position where my home was a dump and my family was unloving, so I can’t empathize with Mayella. I can sympathize though. It must be difficult not knowing where her next meal is coming from, and even more difficult when no one else respects her. She probably agreed to go along with the framing just so it would earn her a little respect, and that says something about her condition.
Atticus asks repeadaly if mayelay was hit in the face. When she says she was it supports all the other statements. However scout sees when Tom Robinson stands up and that his left arm the arm that would have been needed to hit mayelay on the right side of the face cannot be used and also at the same time hold her down. It also contradicts the statement that she asked him to chop up a dresser because he couldn’t chop up a dresser with one arm.
I do feel sympathy for myealla for more than just in the court room. She obviously has more pride the the rest of the Ewells. But she also dosnt know a lot and seems to get insulted easy also showing that her pride means a lot to her. Then Atticus in the court room seems to girl her knowing the sensitivity of the matter despite it being obvious that her testimony if false it is very easy to feel sympathy for her.
I disagree in the fact that anyone should feel sympathy for Mayella. She is different from all the Ewells but in a court case, feelings are not a factor. Mayella is trying to make the jury and the judge to feel bad for her and she tries to use Tom Robinson as an escape goat to hide that her father had actually beaten her. She keeps getting mad at Atticus because she thinks she is being made fun of. She really is trying to convince everyone that Atticus is the bad guy and that he should be in jail.
Lee uses this description to explain that Mayella is sacred and not used to being a court room. Also, she is scared because she is putting Tom’s life in her hands based on what she says during her testimony. Next she is “fragile” due to talking about the events because they were scaring and very scary to go through. Mayella probably does not want to look back or even remember that night of someone raping or abusing her because it is scary and it makes girls feel used and very dirty because they blame themselves for being taken advantage of by a man. Mayella is toughened because she goes up to the stand and tells her side of the story while trying not to cry due to re-living those moments in her head. This quote can be very contradictory because she is illustrated as calm and very at ease but everyone can tell that she is freaking on the inside because knowing her dad if she said one wrong thing he may abuse her when they go home because he wants Tom Robinson dead. It is fitting the testimony because Mayella is very sacred about her dad getting mad at her and hurting her again if this trial doesn’t go his way.
Mayella “thinks” that Atticus is sassing her. She is trying to prove that Atticus is the bad guys and is being unfair and making her seam lame and pathetic. This is a tactic to get everyone to feel bad for her and get everyone to be mad at Atticus. If everyone is mad at Atticus, they will not support him because they think he is a mean man.
I agree with Tyler, that she is making Atticus look like a bad person. It might be that she is afraid of her father beating her up if they lost the case so she is making sure that people would feel bad for her and not make her answer any questions. Since Mayella has grown up around bad people she is also a bad person herself. She is still a smart person to come up with a scheme like that.
There is a signifigant reason why Atticuss does not stare the meaning of each question.. First of all it brongs tension in the court room because they have to think. Tension also to have Mayell break and or mess up. Also it is to have the court see how this could be a lie.
I most certainly feel bad for mayella. She was probably threatned to be hit if she messes up this case. Also she is so different from all the other ewells and smarter and cleaner. She was just born in the wrong family and sadly is beaten by her dad and thats awful.
I feel bad for Mayella for being born in the wrong place at the wrong time, but there are some things she did that are unforgivable. She is obviously lying when she tells the court that she was raped by a man with no control of his left arm. This is where the pity stops, as she blames her own mistakes on an innocent black man, which she has no right to. There are some things about Mayella that you can feel bad for, but there are others that are not forgivable.
There are some reasons I would say that I have sympathy for Mayella, but some things she had done were not fair or right . I feel bad for her for the fact that she does not have a lot. Meaning, that she lives in poor conditions, she is not treated right, and she does not have anyone to associate or talk with. Living with these circumstances on a daily basis must be depressing, and hard. But, she still should not purposely had Tom Robinson brought to trial if he did not do anything wrong, I nowing that he was most likely going to be convicted.
I felt bad for Mayella when Atticus asked her if she had friends and since she didn’t respond that meant that she didn’t. I felt sorry for her, because I think that people hate her family, and they might just assume that Mayella is just as bad as them so that must be why no one wants to be friends with her. I also felt bad that she got offended when Atticus was being nice to her, because she might have never been respected so she thought that it was a bad thing since no one has treated her like that before. There wasn’t a moment that I didn’t feel bad for her because the only reason she was mean to Atticus was because of the way she had grown up, and that is bad.