People can control many aspects of their life, but that kind of power can be challenged because of physical and social and social attributes like race, gender, and class. Traits can be limiting factors on how much flexibility someone has over their own life. Typically, rich, white males have the most power in relation to these three characteristics. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell is a poor, white, nineteen year old girl who lives in the slums of the fictional town Maycomb, Alabama. Because she is a woman with a low social status, she has very little ability to change parts of her own life. Mayella is not powerful in regards to her class and gender. Because of her gender, Mayella is not powerful. In Lillia Eichler’s first book …show more content…
In Eleanor Roosevelt’s “My Day”, she said that “they accepted men as they proved themselves” (Document III). She explains how people were treated based on their ability to prove themselves as equals, not based on aspects like wealth. In To Kill a Mockingbird this is not the case. The Ewell family is treated almost as bad as the blacks because white people will not associate with them since they live by the negroes, and black people will not accept them because they are white. Roosevelt also wrote, “We are a mixed nation of many peoples and many religions, but most of us would accept the life of christ as a pattern for our democratic way of life, and christ taught love not hate¨ (Document III). With that example, the United States as a whole is described as a melting pot, but in To Kill a Mockingbird, Maycomb is very much segregated. The Ewells are ostracized by the people of Maycomb because they are extremely impoverished, mostly uneducated, and do not have the social etiquette that most of the other citizens have. Mayella does not have power because people look down on her family for being poor. Alternately, she does have some power because of her