To Kill A Mockingbird
...Mr. Cunningham of the human bonds that connect everyone in the town. From the indistinguishable group of men, she singles him out and restores his individuality out of anonymity by addressing him by name and recalling his son and entailment. When people join together in a mob, they lose a feeling of responsibility for their actions, because they act as a group rather than as separate individuals. Scout's ability to separate Mr. Cunningham from his group is a result of the sheer innocence of her statements, which shows how inconceivable violence is to her, and forces them to reconsider their behavior. Mr. Cunningham, confronted with the shame of the group's plans and having been reminded of his own responsibility in them, decides to remove himself from the scene, and everyone else follows.
In this chapter, we learn that Mayella's life is one of miserable poverty and deprivation. She shows she is accustomed to being treated without respect when she thinks Atticus is deliberately mocking her by calling her "Miss." She seems hopelessly immature for nineteen years old and her whiney or tearful attitude suggests a subtle sly manipulation of her audience, as if on some level she wants to capitalize off of whatever pity she can invoke for her social state and extend it toward her fictionalized state as a supposed rape victim. She also appears quite afraid of Atticus. There is good in Mayella, her flowers are the only beautiful thing at the Ewell residence, and Scout thinks that Mayella seems to make an effort to keep herself clean, but her actions seem motivated by cowardice. She is initially reluctant to say Tom's name when asked to name her rapist, but she does surrender to fear and accuse him, thus putting her fear of public humiliation over the value of his life.
Atticus's treatment of Mayella reveals that though a victim of many cruelties, she has chosen to...
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