To Kill A Mockingbird Character Analysis

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 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.

Just like gender, Mayella has power when it comes to her social class. Throughout the trial, Mayella was always called Ma’am. “I will not answer a word you say, as long as you keep mocking me.” (“DBQ: Is Mayella Powerful?” 17) Mayella was not used to being called Ma’am, which is why she thought that she was being mocked by Atticus. This shows that Mayella is usually not respected by anyone, including her father. In addition with Mayella being called Ma’am, the judge calls Tom Robinson by a certain name, which shows that he is from a lower class. “That old Mr. Gilmer doing him thataway, talking so hateful to him, the way that man called him “boy” all the time and sneered at him.” (“DBQ: Is Mayella Powerful?” 17) When considering the social class factor, Mayella is very powerful. Mayella’s social class gives her power because with her class, she is well respected by others, and especially by Negros. People respect her more than they do Tom Robinson, which gives her an advantage in the trial. At another point in the trial, Tom was asked why he

Power, it means to have control over your life and others. This story is about the racist trial of Tom Robinson against his accuser a white woman named Mayella Ewell. Considering class, gender, and race how much power did Mayella really have? My paper will be about the effect of Mayella’s power during Tom Robinson’s trial.

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.

Power; everyone wants it, however it is limited to many. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, a woman from a extremely low class family, Mayella Ewell, convicted Tom Robinson, a well respected African- American man, of rape. In this time period, woman still had an insufficient amount of power. The color of someone's skin judged how they were to be treated, and class would continue to be an issue during the 1930’s. Mayella appeared to have power, after winning the court case, however, how much power did she actually have? The only thing that gave Mayella an advantage over Tom Robinson was the color of her skin, which is essentially considered as power. Several times throughout the book, there are hints that Mayella Ewell lacks

In Harper Lee’s novel: To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell does not have power because of her gender and lack of class power. Even though some may say Mayella is powerful because of her race, that is not true. Just because Mayella is white, does not mean she is powerful because being a woman set a certain expectation for how she should act: “She should be courteous and kind to everyone. And she should learn the art of listening as well as the art of conversation” (Document IV).

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,

Finally, Mayella is powerless because she is a female, that doesn’t have a bunch of money, people think she lives like trash, due to the fact she lives in a very small, and dirty cabin that used to belong to a negro family. Mayella is also powerful because of her race, people do not believe very much of anything the blacks say, even if there is plenty of evidence to prove what they say. Due to her race being white, and Tom Robinson being black, the town of Maycomb believed Mayella over Tom, even when the evidence showed

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

In To Kill A Mocking Bird the main character (Mayella Ewell ) in either powerful or powerless in different aspects. Power is the ability to control ones movement or the movement of others. In the story the main character (Mayella Ewell) is accused a man colored (Tom Robinson) of sexual assault, but the man is innocent. I will explain the ways that she is either powerful or powerless in three areas. Mayella may not have been powerful in class and gender, but she was powerful in the area of 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.

Power is everything. In the to kill a mocking bird mayella Ewells trials Tom Robinson a. black man, because he supposedly raped her, everybody in the court knows that mayella is guilty but because she’s a white woman she has more power over Tom Robinson and won the trial Although everybody knew that she was lying they still defend her, but is mayella 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 raping her. Mayella uses manipulation as her main form of power.