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In harper Lee's, To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell is powerful because of her class, race, and gender. Mayella is powerful because she is white women so that means that she has an advantage of some rights. During the Jim Crow Laws it restricted African American men to have an affair with white women. When Mayella went to court for Tom Robinson, Tom Robinson gets convicted of rape and goes to jail, but when Tom tries to escape prison he gets shot. When Mayella won her case against Tom Robinson, Mayella abusive father died. After Mayella won fer case against Tom Robinson, She went back to living in her family shack by the dumps. During the trials in 1950 Mayella had five of them to go to. When Atticus ask one of the question to Mayella,
she kiss Atticus, and right when Tom Robinson said something Mr. Finch yelled and said “what did he say?”, Tom Robinson got mad and yelled which led him to being more guilty. This proves that Mayella can be powerful because Mayella and Mr. Finch were against Tom. Mayella tried to get Atticus in trouble by saying Atticus keeps Sassing Mayella, so this can probably cause Atticus to get in trouble because Mayella is a women. When Mayella did that case about Tom Robinson barely anybody wanted to defend with her because she was a dirty, poor, white lady, but since Mayella is white the people would rather defend with Mayella instead of Tom Robinson, because she is white. When people came over to check Mayella family shack she look like she tried to keep clean, none of the negroes wanted to come close to Mayella because she is white. The reason why Mayella would have have won that case against Tom is because she is white. Mayella maybe port but she is powerful because she is white, probably any case Mayella did against African American, Mayella would just win because of her color.
...uth to fully understand that it is typical to act superior to those with colored skin. All Dill sees is a man being rude to another, just because of his skin color. While Atticus clearly shows everyone in the court that it was almost impossible for Tom Robinson to have beat Mayella, he still loses the case just because he was a black man against a white woman. Lee includes, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee 323) This enforces how it didn’t matter what Tom was really doing or why Mayella was screaming, but just by the way Tom looked they were able to essentially pin the rape and the beatings on Tom. Of course this was not true and he did not receive the justice he deserved, but that didn’t matter to Maycomb. All that mattered was the color of his skin and what the teenage white girl named Mayella Ewell said about him.
Harper Lee, before the reader meets Mayella in person, uses her family and home environment to portray her as an impoverished but aspirational woman, revealing some of her more redeeming qualities before the trial has begun. She then goes on to demonstrate some of Mayella’s negative characteristics during the trial, when Lee portrays her as cowardly, emotionally unstable and racist at times. By the end of the trial, the reader is left to make their verdict on Mayella Ewell; should she be blamed for what she did or is she simply a victim of circumstance?
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 cannot 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.
During the 1930’s, there was this evil assumption that Atticus draws attention to which is that “....all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women…”( Harper Lee TKAM 273). With that in the minds of all the townspeople, Mayella being a “helpless” female amongst the lowest of the low gave her continuous power in the case against Tom Robinson. Moreover, being a female prompted the town to want to protect Mayella even more. The white to black ratio was unwavering in the 1930’s. Even though white people look down upon her, when it came time for Mayella’s case against Tom Robinson her class was disregarded and her race and gender trumped all.
Overall, Mayella is not a powerful figure in To Kill a Mockingbird. Even though she was powerful because of her race, the areas she lacked in was her social class and gender. Despite the fact that Mayella won the trial, the only reason why she won was due to her race. She is also a very weak character since she even allowed her own father to assault her and just the way she lived in general. For the most part, this is important because if this trial happened in a different time period like today, then it would’ve been certain for Tom Robinson to win the
In the 1930’s, turmoil has erupted in Maycomb, Alabama all because the young lady Mayella Ewell has accused African-American Tom Robinson of raping and sexually assaulting her. Yet, Mayella Ewell has no power because of her race, class, and gender. At the time, Maycomb, Alabama was at the peak of segregation against African-Americans. Mayella Ewell may be white, but that does not mean her class, gender, nor her race give her power.
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.
Mayella (white), goes to court against Tom Robinson (African American), where Mayella is accusing Tom Robinson of rape. When Atticus asks Mayella questions, Atticus mishears Mayella. An example of Mayella’s lack of power is when Atticus closes his argument by describing Mayella’s injuries during the court case. “Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left.”
Atticus questions Mayella very differently compared to the way he questions Bob Ewell. Through Atticus? language we learn that he does sympathise with Mayella and he does realise she is a victim of her father?
Let us put each other in the shoes of the jury, friends, and family observing in on a discrimination case. Jem and Scout the son and daughter of a lawyer named Atticus Finch get a taste of what the real world is like when, Tom Robinson a poor black man who is married and has kids is falsely accused of raping and assaulting a white woman named Mayella. Mayella Ewell is a young girl considered to be “white trash” who is all by herself to take on the role raising her little siblings while her father Bob Ewell, who is an alcoholic, abuses her. The question arises, is Mayella Ewell Powerful? Mayella Ewell is powerful in this discrimination case because of her race as white woman, her higher class than Tom Robinson, and her gender as a female.
Mayella uses this case to cover up the shame in her life because she is extremely lonely, has no self-esteem, and overwhelmed with the amount of unhappiness in her life. Mayella gets extremely defensive in this quote because she knows that everything Atticus has brought up is good evidence and she can’t hold her own. In the jury, it was full of all white men. Mayella acted timid and helpless and suggested in her comment that the man of the jury be brave and heroic. She becomes someone who is vulnerable, valuable, and needs to be protected.
One of the major events in Harper Lee’s award-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson’s trial. It is based on the Scottsboro Case that took place in 1931 in Alabama, in which several black men were accused of raping two white women. Both the Scottsboro Boys and Tom Robinson are unfairly judged, however, because of prejudice against colored people. The racial discrimination makes whites’ testimony more believable even when it contradicts itself. The same happens in To Kill a Mockingbird. As we delve deeper into the case and get increasingly closer to the truth, it is quite suprising to see that Mayella Ewell is the true villain rather than a victim. She shall and must bear full responsibility for her actions because she makes the decision to tempt Tom Robinson, gives false testimony in court that directly leads to Tom’s death, and has been well aware of the consequences of her behaviors.
In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a small town in Alabama exemplifies one of the many towns that has clearly defined social classes. Some of these stereotypes are determined by one’s class, nationality, and gender, and the authority that people believe they may possess, which leads to conflict. During the 1930’s in the south, Mayella Ewell’s gender and class did not provide her with a voice. However, her skin color outshone her disadvantages, and allowed her to be highly respected, and this also gave her power over all black people. Due to Mayella’s white race, she was able to have an influence over a majority of her neighbors, and her class and gender did not matter in most scenarios,
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson, was put in jail for something he did not do. But steel had to pay the price for it. Mayella Ewell is a young lady that mother past when she was little and live with the father and sister and brother. And then there is Boo Radley a really shy person and never talk to anyone or go outside in the daylight.
Mayella, the woman defending against Robinson, comes from a low income and low educated family, making them a poor family. Yet Mayella’s word is still favored against Tom because she still holds a higher social status than Tom just because she is white. In fact, in the novel, Atticus has an important quote regarding the court system that is still true today, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins.” (Lee, H. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott. pg. 251-252).