Does Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird show that Mayella Ewell is in control of what happens in her life?

Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee portrays Mayella as being trapped in a desolate life she has no control over; however, Mayella is also portrayed as attempting but failing to rid her life of ugliness and loneliness.

The red geraniums Mayella plants in a corner of the Ewells' yard can most clearly be seen as one of Mayella's attempts to improve her life. As Scout narrates, the Ewells' yard near the county dump is the dirtiest in the county. Their fence is made of broomsticks, tree branches, and other bits of rubbish. The fence encloses a yard scattered with a "Model-T Ford (on blocks), a discarded dentist's chair, an ancient icebox," and other bits of rubbish (Ch. 17). Among all this rubbish and chaos, Mayella makes an attempt to beautify her life by planting geraniums.

However, we see that the attempt is really a failed attempt for a couple reasons. First, all she has to plant them in is "chipped-enamel slop jars"; in other words, all she has to plant her flowers in to try and remove herself from the trash surrounding her life is more trash. Second, while the color red is traditionally thought of to represent passion, geraniums, regardless of color, have very complex symbolic meaning, and that meaning has both a negative and positive side. Regardless of color, since the Victorian Era, the geranium has come to be known to symbolize stupidity or foolishness. On a more positive note, again, regardless of color, the geranium can symbolize gentleness and peace of mind. Hence, Mayella's red geraniums planted in chipped pots show us that she has passionate desires she is trying to attend to in order to find peace of mind, but in reality, all of her actions demonstrate she is a stupid and foolish person; it is this stupidity and foolishness that actually keeps her trapped in her desolate life.

Mayella behaves stupidly and foolishly in a couple of different ways. First, she does so by attempting to seduce Tom Robinson, a foolish act that results in Robinson's wrongful arrest and wrongful death. Second, she behaves stupidly and foolishly by refusing to report her father for the crimes he committed against her. Mayella had her chance to report her father in court, as Atticus begged her to do, saying, "Why don't you tell the truth, child, didn't Bob Ewell beat you up?," but Mayella foolishly refused (Ch. 18). Had she reported her father, she could have escaped him and given herself and what Atticus suspects is her seven incestuously conceived children a better life. Since she fails to report her father, she and the seven children remain trapped in their desolate lives because she yields all control of her life to her father.

Hence, as we can see, Harper Lee portrays Mayella as trapped in a horrible life she has no control over because she foolishly chooses to yield all control of her life to her father. Mayella makes only a few small efforts to improve her own life, and those efforts fail miserably.