Mayella Ewell

Question 1

Fragile

Answer 1

‘she seemed somehow fragile-looking, but when she sat facing us in the witness-chair she became what she was, a thick-bodies girl accustomed to strenuous labour.’

Question 2

Sense

Answer 2

‘She’s got enough sense to get the judge sorry for her’

Question 3

Stealthy

Answer 3

‘Apparently Mayella’s recital had given her confidence, but it was not her father’s brash kind: there was something stealthy about hers, like a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tail.’

Question 4

Loneliest

Answer 4

‘Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world.’

Question 5

Mixed Child

Answer 5

‘She was as sad, I thought, as what Jem called a mixed child: white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white.’

Question 6

Back Hand

Answer 6

‘Maycomb gave them Christmas baskets, welfare money, and the back of its hand.’

Question 7

Advantage

Answer 7

‘Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her. But she said he took advantage of her, and when she stood up she looked at him as if he were dirt beneath her feet.’

Question 8

Code of Our Society

Answer 8

‘She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honoured code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with.’

Question 9

Evidence of Offence

Answer 9

‘She did something every child has done - she tried to put the evidence of her offence away from her…What was the evidence of her offence? Tom Robinson, a human being.’