"I believe Mayella Ewell has been given some hard circumstances in life; has been treated unfairly by society as she has grown up. Mayella Ewell had never been shown love before so she could not possibly know how to show love to the only decent man she ever met, Tom Robinson. I feel sorry for Mayella but my sympathy only goes to a certain extent. Even though she has had some pretty hard things happen to her that is not an excuse to put a man’s life at stake. Mayella got away with it the courtroom but not in our hearts. Should we, society, continue to excuse corrupt behavior from people just because of their poor circumstances? Should we excuse someone just because they are a certain background or because they hold a certain place in society? Indeed, we do still struggle in with racism, narrow-mindedness, and hate today."

Excerpt from student work.

Which characters do you think are the Mockingbirds?