ipl-logo

How Is Mayella Powerful In To Kill A Mockingbird

492 Words2 Pages

One day in Maycomb, Alabama during the great depression a young girl named Mayella Ewell was raped. This shows Mayella is one powerful young girl in the story To Kill A Mockingbird. It will show how she is power through class, race, and gender.
First Mayella is powerful through her class ranking. In the story it said that the “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin…”. This shows that Mayella Ewell is powerful through her class by saying she is the lowest of the low of classes. Mayella and her family are very poor and can not really afford anything extra. They also say that “... white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs…’. This is saying since she was in the lowest class, that she lived wherever and did whatever she needed to do to survive, therefore Mayella Ewell is powerful through class by living life to the fullest and doing everything she can to survive no matter the money or class. Another reason how Mayella is powerful is by her gender. It states that he “... tried to help her…”. This is saying since Mayella is a girl that a guy will do anything to help a girl that needs help. It states “yes, suh I felt sorry for her…”. According to this statement, it …show more content…

In court, they said “ Now don’t you be so confident, Mr.Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…”. This quote is saying because she is a white person that means that she will always win in court or get her way over a colored person. The people in the court say “that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes, men are not to be trusted…”. The quote is said, because that African Americans are liars that no one should trust or believe anything they say or do. Mayella most power is race because she is a white person and white people are the better people during this time. Mayella can over take the court case that she is in just because she a white

Show More
Related
397 Words | 2 Pages

Mayella Ewell is a poor white woman who lives in Maycomb County. Mayella’s house is a desolate Negro cabin behind the town’s trash dump. Her fence is made up of tree branches and broken tools. Despite all this, Mayella Ewell does have power. “Yes, suh.

Read More
1434 Words | 6 Pages

Mayella Ewell: To Pity Or Not To Pity, That Is The Question Do you not believe that your living conditions can affect who you are? In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main event that occurs is a trial between a black man, Tom Robinson, who is convicted of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. She is age 19, living in a town by the name of Maycomb. Mayella Ewell, who lives in poor conditions and has an unsupportive family, accuses Tom Robinson of forcing himself on top of her, taking advantage of her and abusing her.

Read More
482 Words | 2 Pages

Mayella and her family isn’t ranked at all in an upper class category, that is because they are known for being trashy, dishonest, flakky and are looked down on. At home Mayella struggles to live a stable life especially having the new suddenly expected responsibility of being the woman of the house. It seems that the family lacks class and are known in town for being non functional and non supporting considering the only income that is provided is spent on booze and cigarettes. It happens to give a huge disadvantage in terms of affecting Mayella’s control because it offers no control. It’s quite obvious that she can’t control how their society looks at them according to their rank in class and she isn’t able to control how her family

Read More
638 Words | 3 Pages

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird Mayella Ewell's is a powerful young teenager. In the 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama Mayella set news to the small town, she made allegations of rape against Tom Robinson. Mayella is as powerful as the ocean when it takes you underwater. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird will show Mayella’s  power by using Class, Race, and Gender.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

When thinking of the term power, the upper rich class may come to mind. Mayella definitely does not live in the rich class. She lives in “the town’s garbage dump” (document A). In document E, they say that she lives by blacks, which back in their time was seen as a bad and poor thing to do.

Read More
188 Words | 1 Pages

Mayella Ewell is a white woman, from Maycomb, Alabama, accusing an African American man named Tom Robinson, of Rape. In To Kill A Mockingbird the Ewell’s are very unfortunate. Mayella would get abused by her father, Bob Ewell, when he would get drunk. Nobody in Mayella’s town would help her because of her race,class,and gender. This could make Mayella not powerful.

Read More
773 Words | 4 Pages

Is Mayella Ewell powerful or not? Mayella Ewell, the poorest girl in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, living on a pig farm with her abusive father and in an abandoned Negro shack. The Ewell’s are the lowest of the low in the town of Maycomb, in rank wise and are not respected too much either. Bob Ewell, father of Mayella Ewell is an abusive man, sexually and physically and has an alcoholic problem. Mayella is usually beaten and sexually assaulted by him, especially when he is drinking, but Mayella has a plan that will let her be free from Bob.

Read More
348 Words | 2 Pages

Additionally to Mayella’s power in race, does she have power in class? Mayella lives behind a dump and her nearest neighbors are negroes. “Get back to your dump.” Said in Document A.

Read More
442 Words | 2 Pages

When you read To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, you meet Mayella, a white woman that lives with her dad and her siblings who gains power throughout the story. Mayella gets this power using her race, gender, and class in the society in the story. Mayella uses her power from being poor and by everyone feeling sorry for her and making people help her out. Mayella is white so she has power over the black people in the story, Mayella is a woman so she gets respect from the people in the society. Now you know more about Mayella and her lifestyle more, is Mayella powerful?

Read More
593 Words | 3 Pages

Mayella is powerless when it comes to class and gender,her race ultimately makes her powerful. Mayella's family,the Ewells live behind the Maycomb county dump. their yard was a vapid,bare spot enclosed in a “fence” of old trash and metal ,in the yard is just as bad trash lay everywhere.but something caught the eye of everyone who passed the garbage -house, was the bright red geraniums.they looked as if someone had took very good care of them

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

Mayella was was just a poor girl who had never been to school a day in her life and suffered so much abuse from her father, she didn’t give herself the opportunity to be powerful. In a time of oppression and depression Mayella standing up would have been a monumental change but she never seized it and took advantage, she let everyone else take advantage of

Read More
529 Words | 3 Pages

Everyone wants power. People with no power want it and people with power want to keep it. In To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, a rape trial has surfaced, Mayella Ewells who plays the victim wins the case against Tom Robinson. In Maycomb, Alabama there is issues about economic class, the roles of men and women in society, including who is more superior to whom and the importance of skin color. The question is, is Mayella truly powerful, even in the eyes of the law and after winning the case?

Read More
528 Words | 3 Pages

She understands she must say what is needed in order to sway the jury in her favor, even if that means lying under oath. By her own volition Mayella averts the attention from her fallacious testimony, and onto Tom Robinson, a black man. By doing this, Mayella is unknowingly signing Tom’s death sentence. In any other situation, it’s man’s word against a woman's, in this case it’s a black man against a white women.

Read More
710 Words | 3 Pages

May 's feelings of discomfort in regards to the discoveries surrounding her racial background are explored. In "This gunna show ya where ya don 't belong dumb black bitch!". The derogatory language emphasises the depth of the toilsome circumstances May must endure as an outsider in her own community. This event pushes her a step back on the rode of self-discovery as it made her aware of her status in her community. Resulting in, May fleeing for security.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

But she said he took advantage of her, and when she stood up she looked at him as if he were dirt beneath her feet.” Mayella’s loneliness and powerlessness drove her to have an affair with a black man, breaking a societal code. She is a victim of poverty because of the hatred and discrimination occurring in Maycomb. Although some might view Mayella Ewell as a victim, others might view her as a villain because she broke a societal code by attempting to have an affair with a Negro.

Read More

More about How Is Mayella Powerful In To Kill A Mockingbird

Related Topics

Open Document