In the well renowned Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, you are taken to a rural southern town in the United States during the Great Depression in a time of social injustice and systemic racism. Through the two perspectives of once a young Scout Finch you get a look into the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the trial of Tom Robinson. Then you read through the perspective of the matured Scout, Jean-Louise Finch, who is more able to reflect on the trial of the innocent African-American man accused of rape. Through this trial you are introduced to one antagonist, Mayella Ewell. Mayella is a young, poor female who has no power or control over her life. Along with everyone else, Mayella is born into a time and place where a person's class, race, and gender determine their power in society. …show more content…
During this time period, the class you live in paves the way for how much respect you are given.
In Mayella’s case, where she lived did not help her earn respect. “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin.” (Lee, Chapter 17) Using where Mayella lived, people put her on the same level of African-American people, which during that time put you at the very bottom of the social construct. “White people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs.”(Lee, Chapter 19) Along with Mayella's class, being a woman worked against her as well. During this time period women were seen as inferior to men. The way Mayella had been treated as a woman, she was not used to being referred to in a respectful manner. An illustration of this is during the trial of Tom Robinson when Atticus addressed Mayella as ma’am and Mayella found this as a form of mockery. Mayella stated, “ Long’s as he keeps on callin’ me ma’am and sayin’ Miss Mayella. I don’t hafta take his sass, I ain’t called upon to take it.”.(Lee, Chapter.
18) Nevertheless, Mayella has a small amount of power when it comes to her race. However, there is not a substantial amount of evidence to say that this gives her enough to be a powerful character. Mayella is white meaning she has more privilege in her life than that of an African-American person. African-Americans were seen as lesser of a human just because of their skin color. With how society worked, African-American people did not get the upper hand when it came to a dispute with white people. “ 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.” (Lee, Chapter 21) For Mayella, being white is the only thing she has going for her.
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?
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
During the trial for Tom Robinson, Atticus is questioning Tom on what Mayela had done while he was with her. Tom Robinson explained she was kissing him on the side of the face and was explaining how she had never kissed a grown man before. “......She says what her papa do to her don’t count….” (Lee, Chapter 19). Given this quote from the book, it is implying that Mayella’s father sexually assaults her because he is the “man of the house” which seeing that Mayella is female, it renders her powerless against Bob. Mayella’s gender takes away her power greatly. “...Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left….” (Lee, Chapter
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella possibly demonstrates a woman who is powerful because of her race. Mayella (white), goes to court against Tom Robinson (African American), where Mayella is accusing Tom Robinson of rape. When Atticus is asking Mayella
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.
In chapter 18, Atticus questioned Mayella during the trial. Atticus stated “so you did, so you did, ma’am. You’ll have to bear with me, Miss Mayella, I’m getting along and can’t remember as well as I used to (Lee 243). As you can see in the quote, Atticus is being respectful to her. Then, Mayella stated “Won’t answer a word you say long as you keep on mockin’ me” (Lee 243). Mayella became offended when Atticus was being respectful to her. Then in chapter 19, Mr. Gilmer, the Ewell’s lawyer questioned Tom Robinson during the trial. Mr. Gilmer said “Had your eye on her a long time, hadn’t you boy?”(Lee 263), Mr. Gilmer also said “Then you were mighty polite to do all the chopping and hauling for her, weren’t you, boy?”(Lee 263). Tom probably would have wished he was given the respect that Mayella was given, but instead he was called “boy” and not respectfully called “sir”. This is where “class” sets in. Since black men and women were placed in a lower part of their social class than the white women and men they were given the least respect, but If Mayella was a black female and Tom was a white male would they still be given the same
While the novel does take place post-Civil War, racism is still an ever-present factor in America. Slurs such as “nigger” or “negro” are apart of the common vocabulary, such as when Cecil Jacobs says, “That nigger ought to hang from the water tank!” (102). Since the black community is looked down upon, kissing Tom was one of the worst decisions she could make in the public eye. As Atticus explains, “She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man … No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards” (272). Even in the judicial system which, by definition, is supposed to serve justice, has the odds stacked against African-Americans. When Atticus expounds upon this unjust bias he says, “When it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins” (295), rendering Tom Robinson’s trial practically useless. Because of the southern biases against the African American community, Mayella would be ostracized and shunned by society had she revealed her true actions. Everyone strives for acceptance, and will go to many extremes to achieve it, even at the expense of another. Therefore, one must give Mayella sympathy as she was only following her instincts as a
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.
During the court case, Mayella was referred to as, “Ma’am,” while Tom Robinson was asked by Mr. Gilmer, “Are you (Tom Robinson) being imprudent to me, boy?” (Document C, “Ma’am” vs. “Boy”). Both of these people are adults, yet they were addressed differently. Tom Robinson was treated like a child and Miss Mayella was treated like a proper adult. The way that this society looked at these two people is very segregated and is dependent completely on their race. Many others in this town suffered from racism and rude remarks being made towards them, like Helen. One day Scout asked Calpurnia about Helen Robinson and, “Calpurnia said it was hard on Helen because she had to walk nearly a mile out of her way to avoid the Ewells, who according to Helen, “chunked at her,” the first time she tried to use a public road.” (TKAM, pg 333). There are many individuals who are looked at as those of the lesser class due to their skin color and they often faced awful circumstances. White people automatically were set above all black people during these decades because of the strict social boundaries that were set. However, even though Miss Ewell had one advantage of being white in a southern segregated town, she still struggled with being categorized due to her class and
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird white and colored people have freedom according to the Jim Crow laws which were followed by Maycomb a town that’s people based their race, class and gender differences on those laws and own knowledge of right and wrong. Mayella Ewell who gained control using the advantages she had of being both white and female during a trial showed signs of power and having control, does Mayella only have power and control over others but her own self?
While Atticus understood this, the rest of Maycomb chose to stereotype the entire black community as people they had to distrust. Atticus also respected Mayella Ewell even though she was his opposition and referred to her as "Miss Mayella". Evidently, Mayella had not received that kind of politeness before, as she thought that Atticus was trying to "sass" her. At this point, the author is using language to show that Atticus has no prejudice in him. The author also creates a contrast for the reader to consider.
Mayella Ewell is a character in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. She lives in the town of Maycomb, Alabama where the inhabitants are very sexist and judgemental. In the book Mayella is not powerful considering her class, race, and gender. The community members she lives near are a very large contributing factor to her powerlessness. Mayella is mistreated a great amount throughout her lifetime. After all that physical and mental abuse she faces becomes enough Mayella does something drastic. She accuses an African American man of rape knowing, her being a white woman, he would get in tremendous trouble. People cannot say whether it was right or wrong of her to do what she did. What they can say is that at the moment she was powerless to do otherwise.
Mayella had siblings just like other kids such as Jem and Scout. She had a father just like Jem and Scout did but she wasn't being treated as Jem and Scout were. She was being abused physically, emotionally and perhaps sexualy. Most children who are abused are reminded of the lie that they're not worth it or less than others. When atticus was brought up to question Mayella he greeted her with respect. When he was done greeting her, Mayella took the greeting as an insult, afterwards Judge Taylor said, “ Mr. Finch is not making fun of you.. ” (Lee pg. 243) Mayella was never shown that she was a lady and was suppose to be treated with respect and kindness. She probably didn’t know the meaning of being called Ma’am and how it was an act of respect rather than an act of disrespect or
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 & Co., Inc.