What is the difference between Mayella and Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The main difference between Mayella and Scout is that Scout had a loving and supportive father and Mayella did not. 

There are obvious differences of age and class between Mayella Ewell and Scout Finch.  Mayella is older, and poorer, than Scout.  However, there are very big differences in the way they were raised.  Both girls have dead mothers.  Mayella grew up with a father who abused her and never let her get an education.  She was the oldest of a brood of children she had to look after.  Scout’s father was loving and made sure she was well-educated even outside of school, and she had only one older brother who also loved her. 

Mayella had a sad and lonely existence living below Maycomb’s poverty line.  Scout calls her “the loneliest person in the world.”  Maycomb reviled the Ewells, and the trial dragged their miserable existence out into the open for everyone to see and judge, making things worse for Mayella.  During the trial, it becomes apparent that not only does Bob Ewell abuse his daughter physically, since he seems to be the one who hit her face, but he might also be molesting her. 

She says she never kissed a grown man before an’ she might as well kiss a nigger. She says what her papa do to her don’t count. (Ch. 19) 

Mayella never had any education, because the Ewells only come to school on the first day and then go home.  In addition, she has no friends.  When Atticus asks her about it, she seems confused by the concept.  By contrast, Scout has Dill, a stock of town friends and classmates, and her brother Jem.  She also has Miss Maudie, who is an adult but acts as a friend and confidant.  Even Boo Radley looks out for her. 

In addition, Scout has a very supportive father.  He teaches her to read when she is young by reading with her in his lap. 

I could not remember when the lines above Atticus’s moving finger separated into words, but I had stared at them all the evenings in my memory … anything Atticus happened to be reading when I crawled into his lap every night. (Ch. 2)

Atticus makes sure that Scout has a strong moral center.  He continues to spend time with her as she gets older.  Even though he is busy, Atticus makes his children’s lives a priority and definitely deeply cares about them.

Having a loving family makes all the difference.  Scout’s life is not perfect, but it is definitely much different than Mayella’s.  Her father is a lawyer.  She lives in a nice house, with a housekeeper.  Mayella lives by the town dump.  Scout has the luxury of a childhood, something Mayella never had.

Scout's empathy for Mayella Ewell is one of the ways we are able to tell she is maturing.  She clearly compares Mayella's life to her own, even though there is an age difference.  She is able to see the hardships Mayella suffers, and realizes that Mayella is no villain.  She is a victim.