In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell is powerful and gains power as the story goes on. Mayella Ewell is a poor white woman who lives in a dump, her mom left her family when she was young. Mayella has stepped into the mother role in her family. In the story Mayella is abused mentally and physically by her father Bob Ewell. Mayella Ewell is a woman no one wants to associate with, she is white so on African-American man will talk to her and she is poor so no white man will. Characters that are a higher class are treated with more respect especially if they are a white male. In Maycomb it is very segregated and many characters are placed into harsh stereotypes.
When deciding if Mayella Ewell is powerful, the reader must first break down the story, in this case we can start with Mayella Ewell’s gender and how it
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Race is part of the story that ties everything together. The Tom Robinson trial had a negative outcome because of race. As Atticus was defending Tom the jury would still lean towards Bob and Mayella Ewell’s side of the story, because Bob was a strong, white man and Tom is a poor, black man. Atticus Finch received a lot of hate while he was defending Tom. The people of Maycomb did not agree with a white man defending a black man. Bob was a abusive father towards Mayella and everyone in Maycomb knew that, but because he was going up against Tom Robinson everyone believed Bob. During this time in Maycomb the people believed that every black person was a liar. In the trial Mayella had the advantage of being white. Mayella had a plan and she executed it. When Mayella invited Tom into her house she had her own intentions. The goal to Mayella’s plan was to get her father kicked out of the house so her and her siblings could be free from him, instead she got Tom Robinson in a lot of trouble and her father back in the house. (“DBQ Is Mayella powerful?
In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama lives Miss Mayella Ewell. She is a smart but helpless teen that accuses Tom Robinson of rape to escape from her father's abuse. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Mayella is powerful, as defined by class, race, and gender. All though in many circumstances, Mayella's class and gender make her less powerful than most, her race makes her more powerful than substantially all negroes.
In conclusion, Mayella does not have power. Mayella only gains the small amount of power she has from her race. With her being a woman decreases her power, sad well as with her class. Mayella lives in the very lowest class you can be. In conclusion, Mayella does not have power because her gender and class over rule her
In Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Mayella Ewell is an abused girl who causes a controversial trouble when she accuses an African American man named Tom Robinson of rape this is one of many ways that show how Mayella is powerful. What gives her power is her Gender, race and class is her downfall since all of Maycomb sees her and her family as trash, so how does a person like that gain power?
Mayella Ewell is not powerful in her social class because she is poor. In chapter 17, Scout begins to talk about Mayella and where she lives. While describing their yard and house in the text it states, “ Maycomb's Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a negro cabin” (Lee 17). Since Mayella lives in the “towns garbage dump” she receives no respect. Additionally, they have no money to fix the place up. Also the Ewells were so poor that they could not even have a nice fence surrounding their yard. Scout explains that “what passed as a fence was bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks and tool shafts” (Lee 17). Broomsticks, tool shafts and tree limbs do not show wealth. The
To Kill a Mockingbird was a very influential book in the eyes of a growing young woman in America in the 1930’s from the eyes of Jean Louise as a child and Jean reminiscing or reflecting as an adult about the past. Mayella Ewell was a white woman who was looked down upon by her own race and the African Americans were too scared to talk to her. Mayella was looked at to be powerless over her own life and others. If she is, then why does she win the case against Tom Robinson? In the town of Maycomb race, class, and gender played larger roles than some may think let's determine how.
Mayella Ewell does not exert power through her gender because there is suspicion about Mr. Ewell abusing and beating her. Scout describes the interaction between Mayella and her father during the trial: “Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with her chair tipped against the railing. He sat up straight and waited
Mayella Ewell does not have power in regards to her class. She is a
“A woman is like a tea bag- you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”(Roosevelt). Mayella is the opposite of this. Is it because she's a woman or is it because of her incredibly low class? What makes Mayella Ewell Unpowerful? Mayella Ewell is a part of the Ewell Family. A very low class white family that is even frowned upon by other white families. Mayella Ewell is not powerful in terms of class, gender, and race because she is a white woman of a very low class
Is Mayella Powerful? In the past, we lived in a large racial society where many White Americans did not accept African Americans as their equals. In Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, the novel focuses on the story of a rape trial located in a non-existent town of Maycomb, Alabama. It’s about a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a poor white woman, Mayella Ewell.
While Mayella is powerful in race ,she isn’t powerful in gender, because she is a female..
This paper is about Mayella and her power, her race is white, her class, she is poor and her gender is a female, this paper is to find if Mayella is powerful or not. Mayella is a lonely person, and she really get along with anyone. Mayella accused some people that she was hurt or threatened by them, Mayella tells a lot of lies and makes up a story of “happened.” Mayella was a lonely person but she never changed anything about it so now she is in court accusing someone of threatening her. This is about Mayella and how she has power in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird Mayella is a character in the book, she is a poor white female with no friends, and she is the one accused Tom Robinson of rape. Mayella is not powerful
Mayella Ewell is a tragic character in To Kill a Mockingbird. She is faced with many struggles involving her family and the people around her. Although Mayella is a poor white woman with an abusive father, no mother, and six siblings to take care of she does have power. Mayella Ewell is powerful as a character and continues to gain power in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird when it comes to race, class and gender. Despite Mayella being very poor and in a lower class of the society in Maycomb Alabama she uses her status as a white female to manipulate others into deciding in her favor when dealing with her court case against Tom Robinson regarding him being wrongfully accused of
In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Mayella Ewell is the conflict of the story. To challenge herself to see if she is powerful based on class, gender, and race. Mayella is powerful due to her race; however, she would not be powerful due to her class and gender. One might think she is powerful over all; however, she does not have power in the eyes of some readers. Proceeding on to see if Mayella has power in race.
In Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee, 245). As To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in the 1930’s, for a white woman to accuse a man of color of committing a crime would mean that the man has been declared guilty before they are given a chance to defend themselves, leading to false convictions. Even if they were to be given the chance to try to save themselves from an unjust verdict, the juries normally consisted of white men, consequently leading to an inevitable conviction. With Tom Robinson being a black man and Mayella Ewell being a white woman, this was the reality for Tom when he was accused of raping Mayella. With this accusation, it became very clear who exactly had been infected with “Maycomb’s usual disease”(Lee, 91) especially Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father. Racism and injustice are both heavy influences in To Kill A Mockingbird as the story takes place in 1930 where many white people had racist views towards people of color, giving white people a higher status in Maycomb County, Alabama, thus giving them more power than people of color. This played a large role in one of the bigger conflicts in the story with Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson as the two men hold to different social statuses showing everyone their true colors. Throughout the novel we are presented with numerous quotes showing how Tom Robinson and Mr. Bob Ewell acted before the trial and how the trial has showed us what their true intentions are.
Mayella comes from an exceptionally poor family, and her socioeconomic status definitely affects how Maycomb county sees her and her family. "Atticus said that Ewells had been a disgrace to Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day of work in his recollection........they were people but they lived like animals....."(Lee) The Ewells are viewed as essentially pigs to the people of Maycomb county. Mayella who is stuck in this family, has her class overshadowing her racial power. Many people are not kind to Mayella because she comes from such a poor family; “Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her. But she said he took advantage of her, and when she stood up she looked at him as if he were dirt beneath her feet”(Lee). People are not kind Mayella because of her father and what her family is like, yet Tom Robinson was kind to her and helped her, but she still looked down upon him and lied about what he did. Regardless of class, Mayella should know right from wrong. Her class does not affect the obvious power she holds as a white person in the south, especially when she is using it in such a malevolent