Have you ever thought the power people have over each other? Either race, social class, or gender. Although your gender, race, or social class is not as important as it used to be, it is still used to determine the power of people in some places. Mayella Ewell is the daughter of Bob Ewell , they come from a family of low social class with no education, and no money. The only thing that elevates their place in the community is the fact that they’re white. Mayella struggles with power because she is a girl which trumps all factors of her level in the community. Mayella Ewell is powerful because of her gender. Also she is white, and in the 1930’s this played a huge role; she was a white women which made her just as powerful even though she did not have much class power. In the end, Mayella is powerful because her power convicts Tom and leads to his death.
Mayella has gender power because she is able to “cry rape”, and everyone believes her with no evidence. If it was a black woman it would have been harder to convince people that it was true.
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Her race power is evident when Mr, Gilmer is questioning her about what happened. “‘I said come here, nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you. He coulda done it easy enough, he could”’ (Chapter 18). Mayella was allowed to call Tom a nigger but if Tom had called her a name he would have received consequences because he is black. ‘“You never asked him to do odd jobs for you before?’” “I mighta,” conceded Mayella. “There was several niggers around.”’ Mayella called the blacks niggers again and almost refered to them as her slaves, which shows she has race power. Mayella Ewell is powerful because race power is very important in this time period. She is white and that overpowers the rights of black