Examples Of Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

As a result of the Ewell’s living behind the Maycomb county dump, Mayella is looked down on. “We’ll convict this Negro but get back to your dump (Doc A).” This quote shows that though Mayella had won the case against Tom Robinson, the Ewells were still thought of as nothing. “White people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes [the Ewell’s nearest neighbors] wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white (Doc E).” Powerful white people looked down on Mayella because she lived in filth; black people would not either because she was white. “Long as he keeps callin’ me Ma’am and sayin’ Miss Mayella, I don’t hafta take his sass (Doc C).” Mayella is not used to being respected as she is poor and is not treated fairly. This shows how Mayella’s class ties with her power.

Mayella is a poor white girl that isn’t highly educated. This is shown during the courtroom scene where Atticus questions her. “Long’s he keeps callin’ me ma’am and Miss Mayella”. The judge had to elucidate this quote so Mayella would understand. This quote shows she never gets called those names before. Mayella has little power because of her class.

Mayella had a great amount of power in the courtroom during the trial of Tom Robinson. This completely classless manipulative woman used the disadvantages she was dealt in life to her benefit. She made advances toward this black man, when he did not reciprocate those feelings she accused him of rape. He is convicted and sent to prison because of her. Through this, she also gains power that removes her from her father’s sexual abuse. He does not want her because of the relations with a

Power is the ability to control one's life and the lives of other .in the trial of tom robinson mayella power is what ,in the end got tom convicted of rape .there are many ways mayella has power and doesn't have power .this paper will be about the ways mayella has and does not have power. Therefore mayella doesn't have much because of here as said “the ewells live behind the town garbage dump(doc A)”. This means they don't get much respect from the townspeople .mayella also doesn't have very many friends because she “lives among pig (doc E)”.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella is powerful based on class, gender, and race. The book shows us how she does have power, and gives supporting evidence. In this time period, in a small racist Southern community during the 1930’s, all of the categories listed are very important and contributes a lot to a person. Each category has its own reasoning why Mayella is powerful. Mayella has much more power than the other person in their situation, because of all of the listed evidence. Mayella is in a trial up against a black male, Tom Robinson, who she accused of trying to rape her. They were also caught by Mr. Ewell, Mayella's father. Therefore, Tom Robinson has little to no chance of winning the case based off class, gender, and race especially during this time period.

Mayella is not powerful under the circumstances of her race. In the trial Atticus Finch is questioning Mayella by calling her Ma’am and Miss Mayella. She says, “...He keeps on callin’ me ma’am and sayin’ Miss Mayella. I don’t hafta take his sass…”. (“DBQ is Mayella Ewell Powerful?” 17) Later in the trial Mr. Gilmer is speaking to Tom Robinson and calls him “boy” ,even though Tom is a grown man that should be called sir. Tom knows how to be treated though being black. Mayella did not understand how to be treated formally. Mayella is white and does not get treated fairly though being white, and Tom knows how to be treated and does not dispute about it being black. This shows how Mayella is not powerful, even within the standards of race.

Tom Robinson, a hard working African American, was on his way home when Mayella asked him to come inside. She thought he would do her the attraction she never got. Tom felt sorry for her and pity toward her. “No, I don't recollect if he hit me” (185). She used his pity for her to end up getting Tom sent to prison for rape and killed in the end all because of the fear of her father's wrath.

Because Mayella was lower class, she was treated differently than other white people.Like in Doc.E where she wasn't treated like a normal woman she was call a girl instead of ma’am because she is poor,or in Doc.C Mayella says “Long’s he keeps callin’ me ma’am nd sayin’ miss Mayella”shows that she isn't used to being treated like a normal woman but as a poor woman.

There are many definitions of power but my definition of power is to rule over, or to have

Basically, the Jim Crow Laws caused Mayella to win. Like it shows in Document C, Tom was called “boy” while Mayella was called “Ma’am” which shows more respect to Mayella, thanks to her race. All blacks had to deal with being called disrespectful words, such as negro and boy. They had to go through the racism every day, which brought their power down. Additionally, in Document D, Reverend Sykes believes that Mayella won, even though Atticus had the better case and evidence.

While Mayella was being questioned not only by Atticus but the judge , Scout asked herself various questions trying to understand Mayella. “ I wonder if anybody had ever called her ‘ma’am,’ or ‘Miss Mayella’ in her life;as she took offense to routine courtesy,” (Lee 244). At the trial Scout begins to realize a lot about Mayella during the trial and really how lonely a person she is. “I discovered that I had been sitting on the edge of the long bench, and I was somewhat numb,” (Lee).“As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her. She was as sad, I thought, as what Jem called a mixed child: white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white. She couldn’t live like Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who preferred the company of Negroes, because she didn’t own a riverbank and she wasn’t from a fine old family,” (Lee). Everyone see’s the Ewell’s just as a lazy family who sit’s in their own filth and are beyond dumb, but never really took into consideration what their inside lives were like. Here Scout get’s too see Mayella’s life and see feel’s her

Mayella Ewell is often mentally, physically, and sexually abused by her father Bob Ewell. Even though Mayella takes care of her siblings each day, she is lonely most of the time, considering nobody wants to be around her. Her father abuses her and beats her often, and Mayella wants the abuse to come to an end. Mayella comes up with and fulfills a plan to end the abuse coming from her father. Her plan involved a Negro man named Tom Robinson. Mayella accuses Tom of beating and raping her, and brings Tom to court, and goes up against him in a trial. Her plan was successful and came out in her favor because she was manipulative, and she knew what it took to win the trial. Mayella Ewell, a poor, white woman, who lives on a dump, is seen as

Mayella Ewell is living in a racist southern community in the 1930’s. During this time no one was treated the same because of their skin color or if they were intelligent. Mayella has one thing that makes her powerful, her race. Laws back then was harsh. Between white and Negroes, both were wrong and mean to each other. Whites had more power than the Negroes because of the history it has behind them. They were not considered to be equal citizens. Atticus even knows the trial should not be happening, he knew the jury was going to side on with Mayella because she’s white. As Atticus is closing his argument he says, “[The Ewells]....have presented themselves to you, gentlemen, to this court….confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women…”as said in chapter twenty. Mayella only goes through all of this because of her father.

The definition of power is to have control over a person's life as well as the lives of those around them. The Jim Crow Laws are laws that separate the whites from the African-American. Southern women in the 1930s are considered delicate and fragile. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Mayella Ewell accuses Tom Robinson of raping her. At the end of the book, Tom Robinson was executed because he tried to escape prison. Mayella and her family are non-working poor people who live by the dump. Mayella accuses Tom Robinson of raping her. Tom Robinson is an African-American, who is considered to be the lowest class during the 1930s. Race refers to the categorization of people based on physical differences. Class refers to a person’s level of income and education and often boils down to how much money one is able to earn. Gender refers to the roles and behaviors that society expects from men and women. Mayella Ewell can be a powerful or powerless character. Mayella is powerless because of her class, but her gender and race ultimately make's her powerful.

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions.