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Mayella Ewell In To Kill A Mockingbird

496 Words2 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

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To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee takes place in Maycomb County, Alabama during the 1930’s in the midst of the Great Depression. In times of uncertainty during the trial of Tom Robinson Jem, Dill, and Scout grow up as if nothing has changed. Atticus Finch continues to fight Robinson’s trial which leads to nineteen year old Mayella Ewell’s testimony. In terms of control over herself and others in relation to class, race and gender it seems apparent that Mayella Ewell’s gender affects her control over her life and the lives of others the most. Gender, a widespread label separating the world to promote fairness might be used to one’s advantage in a number of ways.

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492 Words | 2 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…”.

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531 Words | 3 Pages

A) During the questioning of Mayella, Mayella assumed that Atticus was mocking her by calling her “ma’am” and “miss”. (Doc. C) The reason why she thought this was because she is not socially experienced since her own race doesn’t want to associate with her since she “lived among pigs”

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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.

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348 Words | 2 Pages

In the courtroom, when Atticus is questioning Mayella, he often calls her “miss Mayella.” Mayella is feeling offended from Atticus because she believes that he was exacerbating her. ”I’m not answering anymore questions until he stops

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674 Words | 3 Pages

Mayella can not use class to help her gain power because of her lack of money. She lives in an old Negro cabin behind the town garbage dump. “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

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526 Words | 3 Pages

This was so unacceptable, that her father made her testify in court that he raped her. *quote* *backup info* Whites in Maycomb took extreme measures to “protect their identity.” This also makes it impossible for the black community to show their worth and that not all of them are monsters or thieves or

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709 Words | 3 Pages

The 1930s was a very challenging time for america, it was the peak of the the Great Depression and the social oppression of women. The fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is centered around the political issues america faced. The novel takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb Alabama where we look at the case of Tom Robinson against Mayella and Bob Ewell. The story goes that Tom Robinson went into the Ewell household and took advantage of Mayella and beat her. Although Mayella was actually the perpetrator, she won the case and Tom Robinson was sentenced to prison.

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733 Words | 3 Pages

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell does not deserve pity from the readers, despite her home life because she constantly victimizes herself, shows no remorse for Tom Robinson, and will bring innocent people down to help herself. Mayella’s character starts to reveal itself during the trial. During the cross examination, Atticus Finch had asked her questions that will help the jury get a better understanding of what truly took place. She shows little to no confidence while answering the questions, and she is given multiple opportunities to tell the truth. In some cases, she simply did not answer the question at all.

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1046 Words | 5 Pages

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee took the minor character of Mayella Ewell and made her into a sympathetic role to her readers in a latent way. Mayella's life at home is told through the story's background and foreshadowing references. This is how Lee made Mayella memorable enough to the reader to know who she is and her family situation without needing her point of view of her side of the story. Once Mayella enters the storyline, her actions will become understandable to the reader and generate sympathy. One way Lee makes Mayella a sympathetic character is how before entering her into the story, one of Mayella's younger siblings was introduced.

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871 Words | 4 Pages

Because of her race, gender, and class, she is considered a powerful character in the novel In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella’s race gives her an incredible advantage, because society

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503 Words | 3 Pages

While Mayella was being interviewed she thought Atticus was mocking her. A realization occurred and that realization was, “I wondered if anybody had ever called her “ma’am,” or “Miss Mayella” in her life; probably not, as she took offense to routine courtesy. What on earth was her life like?” (Lee 184). Mayella Seems to have never received proper respect in her life, She is offended by simple civility because she thinks she is being mocked.

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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.

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766 Words | 4 Pages

At school, Scout nearly starts a fight with a classmate named Cecil Jacobs after he declares that her “daddy defends niggers” (Lee, 74). Scout being too young to fully understand this statement automatically denies it. Atticus, who has been asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman has received many controversial remarks on his take of the case. Although Scout does not initiate the fight with Cecil, her “fists [a]re clenched and [she is] ready to let [them] fly” (Lee, 74). This depicts another one of Scout’s un-ladylike reactions because the ladylike response would be to simply ignore the boy and to remain prim and proper.

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730 Words | 3 Pages

First, she had to make up a story about Tom Robinson because she had kissed a black man, which was frowned upon for a white woman to do. “She was white and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society in unspeakable: she kissed a black man”(272). Mayella is also used as an example when she convinces the jury to convict an innocent black man because of Southern Womanhood. “That n***** took advantage of me, an’ if you fine fancy gentlemen don’t wanna do nothin’ about it then you’re all yellow stinkin’ cowards, stinkin’ cowards, the lot of you”(251).

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