Living without a mother for longer than she can remember,
Mayella has the responsibilities of the home completely upon her since the father
reportedly drinks away the government check that the family receives. Occasionally, Bob
Ewell will shoot a squirrel or rabbit and Mayella can cook it in order to feed her seven
siblings--although no one is sure how many children are in the Ewell
family.
In Chapter 17 of To Kill a
Mockingbird, Scout describes the habitat of the Ewells where no truant
officers
could
keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from
congenital defects, various worms, and the disease indigenous to filthy
surroundings.
Mayella and her
siblings "gave the dump a thorough gleaning every day," and they scatter the refuse of
this scavenging promiscuously around their bare plot of ground. But, at the corner of
the yard, against the fence, there are six chipped slop jar lined up; these
contain"brilliant red geraniiums," for which Mayella obviously cares tenderly--hence,
her middle name of Violet. This action of Mayella suggests that she possesses a womanly
attraction to things of beauty and would like to have pretty things of her
own.
When Mayella testifies in a later chapter of the
novel, she says that what her father does with her does not "count," so inferences can
be made that Bob Ewell subjects his oldest daughter to sexual abuse as well as physical
abuse, abuses, it seems, that she accepts as part of her life. Obviously, she is very
lonely as she asks Tom Robinson to help her often when he walks down from his shack and
passes the Ewells' on the road.
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