How Does Mayella Ewell Have Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

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 powerful in Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. When it comes down to class, race, and gender, Mayella holds a great quantity of power. Mayella Ewell is a poor, white woman that lives in a run down house by a dump. She has to care for her six other siblings because her mom left when she was very young and Mayella’s father Bob, is an alcoholic. Bob physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually abuses Mayella. Mayella uses her class, race, and gender to her advantage to try and get herself out of her living conditions at home. She drags Tom Robinson, a black male, into a whirlwind of accusations of him raping her. Mayella has a huge advantage in the trial because of her class, gender, and race.

Throughout history power has been distributed among people in different forms. Three components contribute to this and are seen over and over again. Some ways people gain power is from their social class, their gender, and their race. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird these components are present relating to power. Mayella has power related to her race but however she does not have power with her class and gender.

Mayella has no power or the upper hand on neither social class, and gender; although, she does have power in her race this is the only reason as to why she wins the trial against Tom Robinson. Mayella is stuck in an abusive household as a result of her inability as a woman to leave and begin a new life this leads to a big downfall for Mayella Ewell. She even struggles with meeting new people and communicating, due to her lack of social interactions. Mayella Ewell’s lack of social interactions is a direct result of her low class and the others looking down on her family. The only way Mayella is able to win anything in her life would only be because she is white. While race does not have the ability to determine power, a person must hold advantages in other components like social class, or gender to be considered “powerful”. Thus, because of Mayella’s disadvantages, she can never really be considered

In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” a local controversy occurs when white girl accuses a innocent black man named Tom Robinson of abuse. Mayella Ewell is a white trash girl that lives behind a junkyard dump with no mother and a abusive father. Bob Ewell physically, mentally, and sexually abuses Mayella to the point of serious injuries. Mayella’s controversial uproar is caused when the town of maycomb has to decide whether to convict a innocent black man for a white man's sins or to convict a abusive father in favor of a negro. Sadly Tom is killed for his “crimes”. In this chaos, the question “Does this mean that Mayella Ewell has power?” comes to mind. There are three main things that show loss and gain of power throughout the novel,

Mayella Ewell does not have power in regards to her social class or gender, but she does obtain power in her race. Mayella is not powerful when it comes to social class because she is poor. Mayella and her family live in a dump with Mayella as the only pure thing living there. The author writes that “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin... Its windows were merely open spaces in the walls…

Mayella Ewell has just accused Tom Robinson of rape in a little town of Alabama called Maycomb. Mayella is a white teenaged female while Tom is a black male. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper will display if Mayella has power or no power related to her trial, with the help of class, race, and gender.

During the trial, Mayella slips a little with her speech, causing everyone to believe that her father beats her: “He does tollable, ‘cept when—” (Chapter 18).Mayella answers that her father is easy to get along with, and makes the mistake of adding on to her original claim. Atticus asks a question that offers insight into Mayella’s home life: “‘Except when he’s drinking?’ asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded” (Chapter 18). Atticus was able to figure out that Mayella is beaten when her father in intoxicated. Mayella is unable to leave her family because Maycomb has little respect for women, showing that she has no gender

A widely debated topic sparked from the novel is whether or not Mayella Ewell has power based on her race, gender, and class. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella does not have power based on class; however, she does have power based on race and gender, which ultimately makes her powerful.

In the 1930’s many people did not believe that a woman had much power, however Mayella uses the fear of black males power against white women to bring fear into the society’s eyes. People feared for the lives of white woman against black men,

Mayella has no power in gender because she lives in Alabama and it is 1930s, so people thought men were more powerful and women have to stay home a take care of the kids. Atticus is delivering his closing argument and says that “[w]e don’t know, but there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left” ( Lee document B). Atticus accuses Bob Ewell of beating his daughter and he is left handed, while Tom

powerful in different ways. Because of her class and gender, Mayella is powerless, but her race

Power is something everyone wants. Power is having control over a person’s life or the lives of others. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, power plays an important role. The novel is set in a fictional town named Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s. This novel is about a black man, Tom Robinson being accused of rape by a white woman named Mayella Ewell. Mayella ends up winning the case and she gets her point across. On the other hand, Tom gets sent to prison and he is shot when he tries to flee from prison. So is Mayella powerful? Because she is in a lower class and she is a woman she lacks power. However, her privilege as a white person gives her the power to ruin Tom’s life.

With this intention of showing how much power Mayella had in the story To Kill A Mockingbird from class, gender, race. It seemed that she would have more power but factors brought it down. Her class and gender were the things that weakened her power over all

The constant struggle for power is a part of our daily lives. From the 1930’s to the 2000’s power is still a everchanging factor. The question ‘who is powerful?’ is based off the factors of race, gender, and class that determine the levels of power that one has over oneself or other people. The struggle of power can been seen in the novel, To Kill a MockingBird by Harper Lee, when Mayella Ewell falsely convicted Tom Robinson of sexual assault. In the courtroom, she displays her power, but also shows her weakness. In regards to her race and gender, Mayella is powerful; however, her weakness lies in social class.