How Does Mayella Ewell Get Power

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.

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.

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.

In a small town of Maycomb there are many ways of deciding how powerful you are. Such as race, gender and class which are a very important role in this book. In the book there is a very important trial that utilized these subjects. The main thing is Mayella Ewell Powerful? She is definitely forceful in this case.

Mayella Ewell’s race significantly contributes to the reason why she has power. Mayella is white, which in Maycomb makes her better than Tom Robinson since he is black. Mayella accused Tom of raping her, even though Tom testified that Mayella tried to make a move on him, but since Mayella was a white woman it made Tom look guilty, and he knew that. During the trial when Mr. Gilmer who is the prosecutor, is interrogating Tom Robinson, he asks Tom why he had fled the house so fast Tom answered that he was scared to be in a “fix” like that. Mr. Gilmer keeps insisting that Tom was afraid because he was guilty, “No,suh, scared I’d have to face up to what I did not do.”(DBQ The”evil assumption”19), Tom knew that just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time he was going to be blamed for something he didn’t do. The

Is Mayella ewell powerful?That is the question that is asked and must be answered.Throughout the story” To kill a mockingbird” Mayella shows some glimpses of power but not enough to say she is powerful.For example in the beginning she shows that she can not even control her home life so how can she be powerful.Also she shows that she is just too poor for her to have power.Now in the next three paragraphs I will explain my thinking on why I believe Mayella is not powerful.

“Does Mayella have power or not and why”. The small town of Maycomb Alabama turned upside down when a young lady by the name of Mayella Ewell uses her class, race, and gender to try and gain power and escape her situation. Although she failed to gain power she makes a scene and is noticed in the small town of maycomb when she is her father catches her with tom robinson who says he was trying to help her with chores is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell if a white female in the early 1930’s during this time women did not have the rights that they do so today. Her being white and being so poor that even the negros shunned her meant that they though lesser of her than themselves which in a white dominated society in the early 1900s took away any power that her race could have given her .Tom

Race, gender, and class are all possessions people have that can make them powerful, but at the same time they can make themselves a powerless person too. Mayella Ewell is a white female who comes from a poor family living in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, an African American man by the name of Tom robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell won the case and the trial which sent Mr. Robinson to jail where he eventually got killed. Mayella Ewell’s race was powerful enough to kill a man that was accused of a crime he never did; however, her gender and class power make her to a point where she is not a powerful person at all.

AH! Power, we have electrical power, mechanical power, but what about social power? Social power is power over one’s own life and others; isn’t it what people sought after? The book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee has its foundation laid on social power, but in this text, it focuses on how an African-American in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, was wrongly accused of raping a poor, white woman, which is the reason for him losing the case, but did she gain any class and gender power from the case? The text says not, so she won on the basis of race, but in terms of gender and class, she is not so powerful after all.

Race, gender and class have always been the key points of discrimination, it didn’t matter if you were white or a male, if you were in the lower class despite those categories you were treated poorly. That was the case for Mayella Ewell, A white female in the lowest class of her society. In the text Class, Gender and Race in; “To Kill a Mockingbird” is Mayella Ewell powerful? After reading the text, it was concluded that Mayella Ewell is in fact powerful. There are three divisions in this society.

Race, class, and gender can impact your power greatly as a person. Men have more power than women, wealthy people have more power than poor people. Lastly, whites have more power than blacks. Whether this information is a known opinion, but not a fact. Mayella Ewell, a poor nineteen year-old white girl from the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, has troubles with her power because of her gender, race, and social class.

Power Race, class, and gender can all determine how powerful you are. Power is how much you can control and what you can do. Without power, it is much harder to get what you want to happen. In To Kill A Mockingbird, black people and women do not have as much power as white people, men, and people with class power. Even though Mayella Ewell is white, she is a woman and does not have any class power.

Dictionary.refrence.com states that power is the delegated authority; authority granted to a person or persons in aparticular office or capacity. An individual's power is dependent on their class, race, gender and their roles in society. Authors show power through text in many different ways. In The Crucible Arthur Miller shows how men have more access to power than women, especially the lower class. Women have less power than men, regardless of their partner's status because women are thought of to be less capable, and lower than men.

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.

Power had a huge part on how people were treated back in the times of slavery. In the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, an African-American woman named Dana traveled between the 1800s and the present to help her great-grandfather throughout his life while also trying to shape him into a better person in the racist society that he was in. One of the things she noticed was how power could dictate how people lived their lives, especially since slavery was prevalent in the area her great grandfather, Rufus Weylin, lived in. Dana, Rufus, and Alice were all characters whose power affected how their lives turned out and the choices that they made.