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Critique of social classes
Mayella ewell to kill a mockingbird character traits
Mayella ewell to kill a mockingbird character traits
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In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, a novel written by Harper Lee, Mayella Ewell has power due to class, gender, and race. Mayella Ewell is a dirt cheap, white woman who lives in a dump right at the edge of a town called Maycomb, Alabama. She lives with her six siblings and her constantly drunk and abusive father. Because of these conditions, Mayella must do everything she can in order to escape this lifestyle. Even if it means to backstab her father and lure in a poor innocent black man named Tom Robinson. Without a doubt in my mind, I know that Mayella Ewell is one of the most powerful characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. From the reading, one can conclude that Mayella does not have that much power according to class. She is the lowest of the low when it comes to financial terms. She lives among the poorest of the poor in Maycomb, Alabama. She is in the middle in a way too. She does not fit in with the white people because of her …show more content…
The environment in the 1930’s was a lot different than it was today. Even though slavery ended in 1863, black people were still segregated against. They were segregated due to the Jim Crow Laws. Because of this, white people used the Jim Crow Laws to manipulate and ultimately control the black people of the 1930’s. Mayella was fully aware of the Jim Crow Laws. She, as a white person, used it to her advantage in the fact that just because she was white, the jury was going to look past what she had done, and convict an innocent black man in the name of Tom Robinson. This is what makes her most powerful. Reverend Sykes says “ Now don’t you be so confident, Mr.Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in the favor of a colored man over a white man”. (DBQ: Is Mayella Powerful? 19) This shows that if there was a case between a white and a black man in the 1930’s, a verdict would had already been reached before the trial even started, the white man is
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.
With this being said, even though Mayella was a low class female she inherited the superiority of being white making it easy for her during the trial. Mayella used her individualistic self pity against Tom Robinson. The little town of Maycomb Alabama knew the truth, but the Ewell’s plan backfired on them. They gained no respect, and are still considered white pieces of trash. As for Mayella individually, she’s not educated but she is very smart. Mayella did have power through race, class, and
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.
Mayella is not one of those of other people in the small town of Maycomb that lives in a nice neighborhoods. Mayella lives behind a garbage dump with her father and siblings. During the trial of Tom Robinson, Scout describes Mayella’s home. ‘“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….What passed for a fence was bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks and tool shafts….Enclosed by this barricade was a dirty yard….”’ Mayella only has one thing that keeps her sane from all the horribly things that has been happening. Which is her red geraniums, Scout says that they are well nurtured by Mayella. Mayella has six of these red geraniums at the corner of her yard. Mayella and her father lives in the neighborhood of Negroes, nor would ever bother them except Tom because he's to nice of a person. “....white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes [the Ewells’ nearest neighbors] wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white….” Mayella would not be powerful in the role of class because of where she lived and what she wored.
To some it is very unclear whether Mayella is powerful or powerless. In the book to To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, a family tries to defend a ‘Mockingbird’ who is being charged with crimes of rape. The book ironically takes place in the mid 1930s after similar events have just recently happened relating to blacks vs. whites. While Mayella Ewell can be considered as powerful based on her race, her class and gender indicates that Mayella is powerless based on the circumstances during the mid 1930s.
In the town of Maycomb, hereditary relations play a large part in one’s reputation, meaning that the social status of your family instantly becomes your own. The character of Mayella Ewell unfortunately belongs to the filthiest family in the town. This is proven in the text, which states:
With lots of children to take care of Mayella was only able to get two to three years of education and she had no friends. This is why when Atticus asks her about her friends she thinks he is making fun of her. After having to live a life like this we don?t know why Mayella would like to defend her hard-hearted father, but she probably did this because she was scared of what he would do to her if she told the truth. We feel sympathetic towards her at this point but there is still a sense of hatred towards her as she is letting an innocent person being jailed who actually helped her a lot when no one did.
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.
After years of emotional and physical abuse inflicted by her father, Mayella was finally able to control one thing in her life. Having an affair with Tom Robinson, a black man, was an enticingly risky idea to Mayella; in the 1930’s, racism was still alive and especially prominent in the South, so the idea of a white woman being romantically involved with a black man was practically taboo. She was well-aware of the consequences that would come with that interaction when she forced him to kiss her, so when she was caught, she had to blame Tom in order to avoid the shameful truth caused by her years of loneliness and abuse. By the time Mayella reached the stand and swore upon the Bible in court, she had already decided that she had to lie about what had really
To conclude, Mayella should be fully responsible for her actions. She is someone that should be condemned instead of pitied because she is conscious while deciding to kiss a black man, kills Tom Robinson by giving false testimony in court, and knows in advance the consequences of her actions. Tom’s miserable fate is in sharp contrast with Mayella’s, as this event in To Kill a Mockingbird is meant to reflect how white people are easily forgiven even when all evidence is pointing against them. Unfortunately, Scottsboro Boys’ end is the same as Tom’s – all but one of them were convicted and sentenced to death for something that did not happen.
However, it is understandable that one can argue that Mayella’s two disadvantages trump her one advantage, socially, and make her a less powerful character in the story. Although it can be debated that women were looked at as a minority and class drives a person’s reputation (which can also lead to the amount of power one possesses), this topic’s evidence is irrelevant to the time that this story took place. Maycomb, Alabama was a very small town filled with conservative and stereotypical people who were stuck in their old ways and were very stubborn when it came to changing their ideas. Race was such a social hurdle that no one could overcome, due to it being a physical trait, during the 1930’s. Even if there was a poor, white woman, she would be automatically respected at a higher level than a wealthier black man. If one’s cultural group were to be ignored in this scenario, a wealthier man would have been at a higher advantage compared to a poor woman. However, race played a large role in this society, and during the court case, “(The Ewells had) presented themselves to you gentlemen (the all white jury), to this court… confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption- the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women.”
The was Mayella speaks shows her class because she has terrible grammar and no manners. The less important thing that shows her power is race, she is treated better because she is white, but she also lives near African Americans so she is judged due to that. Mayella was going to win the court case due to the color of Tom Robinson's skin color. The least important thing that shows her power is her gender, even though she was given sympathy and was abused due to her gender, it was nowhere near as important to her class or race. If Mayella was to get judged by her looks about who she is and how she acted in that time period, she would be judged by her ripped clothing and skin color not gender. So in conclusion Mayella is moderately
They had no money, education, or manners. They were looked down upon by the townspeople.They lived in an old negro cabin behind the town dump on a pig farm. The townspeople felt that since the Ewell’s lived in an area with the negroes that they were no better than them. Mayella had no control over her living situation because she did not have the resources or support. Even though Bob Ewell would have liked to be looked at better from the people of Maycomb, he was not willing to to put forth the effort to change his family’s situation. The little control Mayella had over her home situation were the six geraniums she had which bewildered the town of Maycomb. The way she lived was the route to all her problems she had no control over how the people felt about her or how her and her family
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).