How Does Mayella Ewell Have Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

The year is 1930 in Maycomb, Alabama and there is a girl named Mayella Ewell who is nineteen years old in the story To Kill a Mockingbird. Mayella and Bob Ewell (Mayella’s father) live in a worn down abandoned negro cabin that is located behind the cities trash dump. Over time Mayella gets aggressively and sexually abused by her father which gives her the wishes of being freed from Mr.Ewell. To do this, Mayella decides to accuse Tom Robinson ( African American man) of rape. After accusing Tom Robinson, Mayella goes to court with her father to further explain the reason for the accusation. Mayella is then given the opportunity to have power for the first time in her life, however Mayella must decide now if she will take this chance of having power and being freed from her father or not be given any power at all. With this Mayella is given power because of her race, class, and gender the main factors of Mayella having power.

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.

How would one define power? A better question would be, what factors come into play when defining power? For Mayella Ewell, a poor white female living in 1930’s Alabama, these factors are class, race, and gender. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella made claims that Tom Robinson, an innocent black man, raped her in a desperate attempt to get away from her abusive father. Although these claims were false, the jury convicted Tom because Mayella has power over him. Mayella has power sourced from class, race, and gender.

Is Mayella Powerful in “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Mayella is powerful due to the fact she won in court and was able to have the court convict Tom Robinson guilty of raping her. The way she handled court was not a mature thing to do, but it was smart.She did not only win because she was wise about what she said, but because she was a white female. This played a huge roll in the courtroom and was one of the major components why she won. Mayella had to do what was best for her future, because she did not want to reflect her Dad’s lifestyle in any way. “ One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Against the fence, in a line, were six… jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for… tenderly… People said they were Mayella Ewell’s.” This excerpt is from the book and it is trying to explain how Mayella cares for the red geraniums and it shows how she has hope for a better life for herself. She really doesn’t enjoy the way she lives now, with her father harassing her, she wants to be happy. The red geraniums are a symbol for hope. This helps the reader to believe she is not weak, but she is powerful.

Power can be obtained in a ot of different ways, however, in history there are 3 main ways to get power. Which is race, social class, and gender. The book To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee wrote about power. One time is when Mayella Ewell accuses a man for raping her. Mayella doesn’t have power in matters of social class and her gender, but she does have power due to the fact the she is white.

Mayella Ewell is not very powerful according to her class, race, and gender because of the way she lives her life and the life she has with her Dad. Mayella does not live the same as the other families in Maycomb, Alabama. She lives in a very small town with dirt roads and most of the nearby stores around the Ewells house have been shut down due to the Great Depression. Mayella lives with her father, Bob Ewell in an old Negro cabin behind the town trash dump. Mayella has a tiny spot against the fence around their house where she has six jars line up that are holding bright red geraniums in that she loves.

Her father’s power over her is further demonstrated when Tom Robinson says that “She says what her papa do to her don’t count”(Lee Document B). Tom’s statement provides more evidence that Mayella is abused and taken advantage of by her father. Being a woman, Mayella lacks the power to leave her abusive home and father. Mayella’s gender does not give her power, but neither does her social class. Mayella is not powerful in regards to her social class because she is poor.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Mayella Ewell is not powerful, according to her class, race, and gender.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the character Mayella Ewell, portrays an interesting model of power. Mayella is not powerful in terms of class,gender, or race. Mayella’s family exists at the very bottom of the white social hierarchy. Her power is extremely limited.

In the undisputed classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee elucidates the racial injustice and social inequality in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama. The Ewells are premeditated to be the despicable family, “white trash,” divided by living “behind the dump” not suitable to be a member of the white or the black community. Mayella Ewell breaches a “rigid and time-honored code” of society, by kissing a black male to fulfill her need of feeling cherished. To avoid greater disgrace in society, the Ewells plea Tom Robinson to be a rapist, and he is later convicted and sent to life in prison. Red geraniums growing on the sidelines of the filthy yard reveal Mayella’s desire for beauty. Mayella contends to class hierarchies and gender roles being an Ewell. Lee portrays Mayella struggling to meet the guidelines of

Everyone has their imperfections. The weaknesses some people bear seem worse than ones that others struggle with. The author Harper Lee, in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, shows those imperfections through the characters that she has built her novel around. Many of these characters, though, also have positive characteristics, keeping them balanced. One character, though, does not identify with such balance. Mayella Ewell is not the average citizen of Maycomb county, mainly because of her forlornness, her ability to be secretive, and her cowardliness, resulting in great, yet miserable, consequences.

Power is something many people strive to have. In the book; To Kill a Mockingbird, power is based off of three things: your class, your gender, and your race. The story’s setting is in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. The story is about a rape trial concerning an African-American man, Tom Robinson, and a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Even though Mayella was lying about the whole ordeal, Tom is still convicted. Although this may seem as Mayella may have a lot of power, there are still other factors that have not come into play. So, is Mayella truly powerful? Although Mayella is a poor woman, which gives her virtually no power in the categories of class and gender, her race makes up for it by giving her some power.

What is power ?. Power is to have control over yourself and over others. There is conflict going on between an African American male , Tom Robinson , And a Caucasian female , Mayella Ewell. During this time period , they didn't care for gender it was all about the race which Mayella was powerful in , because she was white.

Mayella has power over race because in the trial she said that Tom took advantage of her but Tom said that Mayella asked him to help her with some chores and in the jury they really did not care what Tom said because he’s african american the jury believed Mayella Ewell. Mayella already felt confident that she was going to win because she had never seen any jury decide in

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Mayella Ewell is someone you would not expect to have any power in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. The Ewells are the considered the poorest family in all of Maycomb, and considered the lowest of the low in the social ladder. Mayella Ewell, regardless of her social status, was still a white woman in the 1930's, a time of segregation and discrimination against African Americans, which gave her the upper hand when it came to race. Mayella is also still a woman in the 1930's when women did not have many rights or even viewed as powerful but Mayella found a way to exploit even her gender. If Mayella with her low class and terrible background could have indeed reached a level of power how could she have done it ? She was clever, cunning, and sneaky when it came to framing Tom Robinson but why did she do it what did she expect in the end of all of this ?