Mayella Ewell's Trial

“...Mayella’s recital had given her confidence, but it was not her father’s brash kind: there was something stealthy about hers, like a steady-eyed cat with a twitchy tail” (Lee, 242). In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson was a black 25-year-old man. Mayella Ewell is a white nineteen-year-old female whose family was at the bottom of the social class and everyone in the town disliked them. She accused Tom Robinson of raping her in her own home causing the case to go to court. Atticus Finch defended Tom in court because he knew Tom’s trial would be acquittal which they could have won the case, but Tom was shot seventeen times in jail. In the trial Atticus Finch’s children Scout and Jem learn their opinion on how racist

and unfair white people can be to black people. In this case, Mayella had the power in the courtroom, but she didn't have power at home that caused her to lie about Tom Robinson.
Mayella Ewell was the daughter of a dirty unpleasant man whose name was Bob Ewell.

She was the mother figure to her siblings since her mother had died. She had a very low education and did not know much, she had only went up to third grade which she stated in the courtroom, “Two year- three year- dunno” (Lee, 244). The Ewell’s lived in a unpleasant squalid house. At home Mayella had no power because of her father, she was abused and sexually assaulted by him when he would drink. Also because her father did not let her do anything and because she was low educated no one would care what she said including her father. Which in the courtroom she wanted to prove herself worthy that she knew

things.
In the book Tom Robinson was helpful to Mayella.

He had helped her with her with odd jobs around the house because no one else would help her as he stated on pages 255 and 256. Also, he had felt pitiful for her since she was lonely. One day, when Tom was trying to help her she grabbed onto his legs trying to kiss him as he stated, “She reached up an’ kissed me ’side of th’ face. She says she never kissed a grown man before an’ she might as well kiss a nigger. She says what her papa do to her don’t count” (Lee, 260). With Tom doing these odd jobs she felt powerful because of racial bias. She also felt like she was in charge by having him do jobs for her since no one else would help her with anything, plus she was able to lure him into her own house. When her father Bob Ewell had seen through the window catching her and getting her in trouble which led to her getting physically beaten by him. Before her father had saw she used being a female and her white background to lure Tom Robinson into the house to help her when she already knew what she was going to do.
In the courtroom Mayella had some power because she was white, her low education, and her being a female. She used being white as power because the whole jury was white and her case was going against a black male. She also used her low education by the way she acted childish in the courtroom making everyone feel pity for her as Jem stated, “She’s got enough sense to get the judge sorry for her…” (Lee, 240). Lastly she used

being a female in the courtroom because the men felt bad because they knew women weren't fit to be in court.
In the 20th century “nigger” is the “American history of violence, pain, misrepresentation, death and mockery associated with black and brown bodies” (Lester, 5). With everything stated in the previous quote is what Mayella caused for Tom Robinson over a lie. Everyone convicted him because he was a bad man but if he was a white man it probably would have been different because whites have the power over everyone in Maycomb. White people got everything better and beneficial for them and the black people just got the useless old items whether it was school items, churching, stores, houses, jobs, and more things. As Ama Mazama stated in her article, “I say America does not love my children. You know the statistics about prisons and all that. They have a plan for my children, and I am not going along with it” (Mazama, 7). In the quote from Ama Mazama’s article, she talks about how in America white people are racist against black people who live in America and basically the whites want to take out all the blacks and the women stating the quote disagrees and does not want that for her children’s future.
In the end, a lie can stay with someone till the end causing everyone else around to be harmed in ways. Mayella always knew she had power over Tom Robinson and she used it to her advantage causing him to get killed. She never had power from where she came from and at home but she had power in this case. She had got her power from being white, a female, and not having a good education.