To Kill A Mockingbird Dbq

Everybody wants power. People with no power want to obtain it, and people with a lot of power want to keep it. In Harper Lees book To Kill A Mockingbird power means to consider the amount of control a person has over his or hers own life as well as the lives of others. The novel is set in a fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. This novel is mainly focused on the rape trail, between, Tom Robinson, a black man, and Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Mayella wins the case, but is Mayella truly powerful? Although Mayella is powerless when it comes between class and gender, her race is the ultimate power to end Tom Robinson. Mayella Ewell’s family struggles from poverty. She lacks power because if her lower class status, the Ewell’s lived behind the town’s garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin [Doc A]. She plants geraniums to beautify her yard, but is still seen as low class by the people of Maycomb. She is stunned by a society who thinks that she lives “among pigs”[Doc A], after the trail she and her father are told to “get back to your dump” [Doc A]. Mayella also shows stupidity when she gets called ma’am or miss by

During trial, it is revealed that Mayella is verbally, physically, and sexually abused by her father. Mr. Ewell intimates Mayella by tipping his chair against the railing when she tries to give them an honest answer to what he really does [Doc B]. In addition, according to Tom Robinsons testimony, Mr. Ewell called his daughter a “Whore”, Threatened to kill her, which is clear verbal Abuse , Also Mayella says “What her papa do to her don’t count”, this means the actions she tried to do with Tom Robinson is the same actions Mr. Ewell does on Mayella, intimating sexual abuse[Doc B]. Finally Atticus closing statement says Mayella has been beaten “Savagely”. This means that her father beats her [Doc B]. This is the reasons why Mayella gender makes her powerless as an