Mayella Ewell In To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lees novel To Kill a Mockingbird is based in the 1930s during the Great Depression. There is an outstanding character whose name is Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell is a very powerful character compared to most. Mayella is powerful because of her race and gender. She was a white woman and white women were protected and loved during this time, which gave her an advantage. The laws of the time, Jim Crow laws, stated that whites could do what they wanted and blacks had restrictions to their freedoms. The author states that Mayella Ewell is powerful by her class, gender, and race. Yet her class makes her the least powerful, in page 227 of chapter seventeen, it states” Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was a Negro cabin”.“DBQ Is Mayella Powerful?” Il, Evanston, 2013. According to the text, this is to say that the Ewells did not the have the best view for a yard, neither did they

Her gender on the other hand was respected by everyone in the south. In fact, the women and the white race were the things that were the most respected things in the 1930s. As shown on page 243 in chapter eighteen, the position of Mayella Ewell is” Won’t answer a word you say long as you keep on mockin’ me,”she said. ‘Ma’am? Asked Atticus, startled. ‘Long’s you keep on makin’ fun o’ me.’Judge Taylor said, “Mr finch is not making fun of you. What's the matter with you?”“DBQ Is Mayella Powerful?” Il, Evanston, 2013.Mayella looked from under her eyelids at Atticus, but she said to the judge: ‘Long’s he keeps callin’ me ma’am and sayin’ Miss Mayella.” This claim shows that women were treated with respect, except for the fact that Mayella really didn’t realize it. She also did not realize this because they looked at her class which showed her that she did not get much respect so Atticus gave respect which not many people gave her