An Essay on Learning to Move on
(TS)Though we like to consider ourselves civilized humans, everyone of us has an abundance (Thesaurus Word) of basic primitive reactions. Mayella Ewell has made many choices in her life that, in most cases, our first priority in life is to ensure our safety. (SD)Mayella has had to take care of her family as well as herself for her entire life. She has lived in a world that has danger lurking around every corner, whether it be her drunken father or the disgusting conditions of her home. It would be hard to understand why she made some of the decisions she did unless you look at her life from every angle. (CM)Mayella's father, Bob Ewell, was and angry drunk. He often took out his aggressions on her, and from a young age she has had to learn how to stay alive. When her father told her to lie about him assaulting her, she knew she had no other choice but to do as she was told if she wanted to live to see tomorrow. Though she knew lying about what really happened was wrong, her survival instinct was stronger, making her blind to the other dangers she was about to face. (CM)Without this information many people would automatically assume that Mayella was a bad person who would lie and end up killing an innocent man. But when faced with this information, would you have done differently? If your life depended on you lying, would you do so? If you step into Mayella's shoes, you might realize that although the choice she made was wrong, it might be the one you would have chosen. (SD)Many agree that Bob Ewell is both a bad father as well as a bad man. He spends money that should be going to his children on alcohol, making him dangerous and a bad influence on his children. The choices he made might be because he is a foul person, but there could be more behind the surface. (CM)Bob Ewell has the same survival instinct that Mayella has, only he interprets it differently. When he is stressed or scared, he turns to drinking to numb his senses. This not only numbs his senses but numbs his survival instinct, giving him the opportunity to do reckless things without the constant nagging voice in the back of his head telling him "This is dangerous!". (CM)This is the only way Bob Ewell knows how to survive; without alcohol, his painful life could potentially kill him. Though his methods of surviving are wrong and selfish, it helps to understand why he makes the choices he does. Some would not forgive him, even after knowing why he does what he does. Some would be sympathetic, realizing why he hides from the world, even if they do not accept it. (SD)To forgive someone for the terrible acts they have done can be the hardest thing you ever have to do. (CM)Some never forgive, others forgive and move on. Tom Robinson might have one day forgiven Mayella for lying and sending him to jail if he understood her reasoning and survival instincts. He might not forgive her, saying she should have taken the risk and done the right thing. (CM)Mayella, who probably won't tell her father for fear of her well being, might never forgive him. She could spend the rest of her life resenting him silently in her head, never truly moving forward. Holding on to something like this can destroy someone. Spending all their energy on remembering when forgetting would be the best thing to do. (CS)Sometimes, even if you don't want to, even if it's painful, even if it seems like it might kill you, moving on and forgiving someone may be the right thing to do not only for yourself, but for those who are around you. (Tricolon)
