“There is something in our world that makes men lose their minds…” (Lee 295). That something is fear, an emotion we never want. Fear is a major motivator in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. She encouraged the townspeople, Aunt Alexandra and Mayella, to make very bad decisions. The townspeople joined the wrong crowd and continued racism in Maycomb. This led to Aunt Alexandra stopping people from being themselves and Mayella accusing an innocent man of rape. First, Aunt Alexandra was motivated by fear which led her to treat others poorly. For example, Aunt Alexandra was always complaining about Scout's clothes and her behavior because she was too afraid that Scout wasn't doing well. If Aunt Alexandra wasn't filled with fear, she wouldn't force Scout to change; by doing this, it really made Scout's life miserable and she taught Scout that she couldn't be who she wanted to be. Also, Aunt Alexandra tried to imply that Atticus should drop the case because it could ruin their family's reputation, the whole family hates what Atticus is doing, "That's exactly what I said. Grandma says it's bad enough he let you all go wild, but now he's become a nigger lover, we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He's ruining the family, that's it. that he does” (Lee 110) only came to set Atticus and Scout straight, but if she wasn’t motivated by fear, she would let Atticus do what he feels is right to do. Aunt Alexandra's attitude towards the affair has been destructive, but it doesn't show as much, her attitude makes Scout sad and mad and inside Atticus probably feels sad that his family doesn't appreciate what he does. 'he does. Fear motivates Aunt Alexandra to treat people badly... middle of paper ... it would have been less destructive if she did, Tom Robinson wouldn't have died, Helen wouldn't be afraid and would have worked on everything. time, Tom's children and friends wouldn't be so sad, Jem, Scout and Atticus wouldn't feel like they lost something important and Bob Ewell could have gone to prison and served time for tortured his children. Additionally, Mayella showed that she was terrified when she stopped answering questions and started stuttering because she was afraid of ruining everything for her father!!!!!!!!!!! If Mayella spoke more confidently, people wouldn't think she was lying, but she stopped responding and started stuttering, which was destructive to herself. Now people are sure she was lying and that Bob is the real bad guy. Everything was going well for them until then. Mayella's fear of her father encouraged her to do horrible things and make serious mistakes..