Elizabeth O’Brien
Johnson
9th Grade Literature
21 May, 2018
Title
Social class, gender, and race are recurring topics in history of what gives a citizen power. Each topic, in different time period, would give a person better rights and privileges over another individual. In the 60’s white rich men were seen to be above all in power.
The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee addresses these topics and addresses the privileges given to an individual when they fall under the time periods ideal social class, gender, and race. Mayella Ewell is a great example of a character that has little to no power in this book. Mayella is a white women whom is the daughter of Bob Ewell, the towns drunk. The Ewell’s are poor and are looked down upon when it comes to actions and way of living. A black man named Tom Robinson also lives in Maycomb and was accused of raping Mayella.
While some may think that because of Mayella's race she can outdo her lack of power in social class and gender with the fact that she is white, but during the novel people's actions and reactions contradict that.
Mayella did not have power with social class because she is from a poor family who is looked down upon by
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The don't live in the best conditions and do not care about hygiene from what the towns people can tell. Their house is not kept in a good condition and is seen as a dump, lowering their social class and giving them less power, “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” (Lee 17) Their house was not kept well and they seemed to leave it that way. They lived in the poorest part of town and you could tell from the exterior. The towns people seemed to push them aside because of this and they had little to no power when it came to Maycomb's collaborative decisions or just overall