Mr. Gilmer called attention to the hot day by wiping his head with his hand.  “That’s all for the time being,” he said pleasantly, “but you stay there.  I expect big bad Mr. Finch has some questions to ask you.”

 “State will not prejudice the witness against counsel for the defense,” murmured Judge Taylor primly, “at least not this time”.  Atticus got up grinning but instead of walking to the witness stand, he opened his coat and hooked his thumbs in his vest, then turned…and strolled back to the witness stand.  From long years of experience, I could tell he was trying to come to a decision about something. 

“Miss Mayella,” he said smiling, “I won’t try to scare you for a while, not yet.  Let’s just get acquainted.  How old are you?”

“Said I was nineteen, said it to the judge yonder.” Mayella jerked her head resentfully at the bench.

“So you did, so you did ma’am.  You’ll have to bear with me, Miss Mayella, I’m getting along and can’t remember as well as I use to.  I might ask you things you’ve already said before, but you’ll give me an answer, won’t you? Good”.  I could see nothing in Mayella’s expression to justify Atticus’s assumption that he had secured her wholehearted cooperation.  She was looking at him furiously. 

“Won’t answer a word you say long as you keep on mockin’ me,” she said. 

“Ma’am?” asked Atticus startled. 

“Long’s you keep makin’ fun o’ me.”

Judge Taylor said, “Mr. Finch is not making fun of you.  What is the matter with you?”  Mayella looked from under lowered eyelids…, “Long’s he keeps on calling me ma’am an sayin’ Miss Mayella, I don’t hafta take his sass, I aint called upon to take it” (Pg. 242-243)

When it came to the day of Tom Robinson’s trial, Mayella had to get up and tell her side of what happened between her and Tom.  Mayella is trying to keep a lie to spare her life, but Atticus knows that she is lying and refuses to tell the truth.  In order to try to get her to tell the truth, Atticus tries to be more friendly towards her rather than interrogating her till she can’t bear it anymore.  Mayella already has a fixed mind and claims that Atticus is trying to insult her and mock her by calling her “ma’am” and “Miss Mayella”. This shows a perspective between both Mayella and Atticus.  Since Mayella is part of the Ewell family, everyone knows that they are very poor and don’t have very good living conditions.  Mayella has never gone to school so she doesn’t have any education which can explain why she thinks Atticus is mocking her.  She was never taught that saying ma’am and/or Miss is used to show respect towards neighbors and/or acquaintances.  Mayella also has a hard life because she has to take on the mother roll in the Ewell family and she can never get any time to get attention herself.

On the other hand, Atticus is the complete opposite of Mayella.  He isn’t wealthy, but he does have enough money to keep Jem, Scout, Calpurnia, and him alive and healthy.  Even though he has money, he isn’t greedy like most people are with money.  He knows not a lot of people in Maycomb have lots of money so if someone owes him but they don’t have any money to give him; he lets them pay in some other form.  For example when Walter Cunningham stopped by Atticus’s house to drop off some potatoes, Walter respected Atticus by not forcing him give money to him.  Atticus truly believes that if you respect someone else, then they will return the respect.  It shows how both Atticus and Mayella are in different spots on the social status in Maycomb.  Atticus establishes that being kind or respectful is the best thing to do when in doubt.

One of the differences between Atticus and Mayella is their social rank.  Mayella is low in the social rank so she doesn’t know a lot about integrity towards someone and because Atticus is higher in the social rank, she might seem a bit intimidated by Atticus.   That could also factor into why Mayella thought that Atticus was mocking  her.  The perspective between Atticus and Mayella are completely different because they have very different lives and different thoughts about everything.  The way they both live can alter what they think about different things.  For example, when it’s dinner time for Scout, Jem, and Atticus, they don’t have to worry about not having dinner because they know that they will always have something on their plates for them to eat.  For Mayella, dinner might be a worry from the way she lives.  Her father hunts animals outside of Maycomb, but there could be a day where he didn’t catch enough for everyone so she might have to skip dinner in order for someone else to get their dinner.  Everyone’s perspective can depend on what their living conditions and their relationships with other people are like.