How To Gain Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

People obtain power in ways that can be good, bad, or very manipulative. Power is not always used for good and in the case of Mayella vs. Tom, Mayella was able to gain power and she used it in the wrong way. Mayella Ewell uses her gender, race, and class to gain power in her life and more control over the trial.
Mayella uses her gender in a very manipulative way. She is able to make others sympathize her due to the fact that women are viewed as more vulnerable than men. Mayella accuses Tom Robinson of rape, and uses the fact that she is a young woman to make herself sound more defenseless. Pointing out that she is incapable of fighting back, Mayella claims that “[tom] caught me and choked me and took advantage of me” (Lee 18). She uses her gender to her advantage during the trial, to portray as more defenselessness than

Due to the fact that this event happened during the 1930’s in Alabama, it is no surprise that the jury would take a white person's story over a black citizens story. Throughout the book you gain the understanding that almost everybody in this town is racist, and mayella uses that fact against tom in the trial: “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case” (Lee 25). Even though atticus gave amazing arguments, and almost everyone knew Tom was not lying, the jury could not break the “social rules” of the town to show that Tom was indeed innocent. According to the NCBI it is more likely for a black defendant to be accused as guilty against a white defendant: “Racial bias appears to lead jurors in trials of stranger rape to convict Black defendants more readily and to sentence them more harshly than White defendants” (Hymes). This fact helps show that even if there were more people leaning to Tom’s freedom, the fact that he is black and Mayella is white would most likely end up in him being