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Who Is Tom Robinson's Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Mayella Ewell is a powerful character. Mayella get’s her power from her class,race,and gender. Her power mostly comes from her race. Tom Robinson has been accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. Mayella race is where most of her power comes from. Her being a white woman in the 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama helps because, of the Jim Crow laws which was made to segregate the black and white people. The trial of Mayella being raped by Tom Robinson is based on race because, Tom Robinson is a Negro and does not have power.Mr. Gilmer said to Tom Robinson “Are you being impudent to me,boy?’’. ("DBQ is Mayella Ewells powerful" 17). Tom is a grown man and has two kids and a wife and should not be called a boy by calling him that Mr.Gilmer is showing that he does not have respect for Tom, he should be called sir which shows respect. …show more content…

Being a women in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s gave you some power. If you were a woman during this time the men will open the doors for, let you go first, and do whatever they can to please you. “Ma’am? Asked Atticus, startled”. ("DBQ is Mayella Ewells powerful" 17). They call the women and girls ma’am to show the respect they have for them. Mayella has never been called ma’am because, her dad,Bob Ewells, never showed her respect and she thought Atticus was mocking her but, he was not he was showing her respect. Mayella’s class gives her little to no power. She lives in an old Negro cabin behind the dump.”He thought he’d be a hero, but all he got for his pain was...okay, we’ll convict this Negro but get back to your dump.’’("DBQ is Mayella Ewells powerful" 13). Bob thought people would love him because, he won the trial against Tom Robinson. Instead they told him to go back to his dump. Mayella doesn't fit in with the rest of the whites because, of where she lives. She has some red geraniums in one corner of her yard, which shows she has

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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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The court case, how she lives, and her gender all influence the way she is perceived. Mayella Ewell is perceived as powerless due to her class and gender, however, she is seen as powerful due to her race. Mayella Ewell is powerless because of her class. In Document A, “Get Back to Your Dump”, chapter 17 states, “Maycomb Ewells lived behind the town

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In the novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Harper Lee categorizes power using class, race and gender. Mayella Ewell, living in Maycomb, Alabama, starts allegations that Tom, a poor-Negro man of rape. Living in the South during the 1930s could have been difficult but Mayella, a white women can make it. (“DBQ is Mayella Ewell powerful?” 19) states “-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around are women….”, meaning she will most likely win the trial because of her race.

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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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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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Additionally to Mayella’s power in race, does she have power in class? Mayella lives behind a dump and her nearest neighbors are negroes. “Get back to your dump.” Said in Document A.

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.

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Mayella was not favored by the people in Maycomb. She was extremely poor and never spoke on any harassment she suffered from her father. Tom Robinson attempts to get the truth out in the open when he is giving his testimony, “She said what her papa do to her don’t count” (Doc B). Mayella doesn’t fully understand that her father is physically abusive towards her. To her it’s just love.

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In to Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson a colored man during the Great Depression was accused of rapeing Mayella they went to court and they fought for each other's innocence. Victims of rape and abuse are affected one way or another. Some physically and others mentally or even both. Mayella is a pitiful lonely girl who doesn't have any friends, is poor and has a drunk father. This causes her to make a unforgivable decision to seduce a man of different skin color.

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Mayella lives with her father and her smaller siblings. In the book Mayella Ewell has accused Tom Robinson,a black poor man with a left crippled arm of raping her. During this time blacks were in a lower class than all whites. Atticus Finch has two children,Scout and Jem. Atticus Finch,Tom Robinson’s lawyer finds evidence that Tom is innocent.

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She claims that she has been beaten and raped by a negro who’s name is Tom Robinson. Although she says that it was Tom Robinson who has raped her, others claim otherwise. This case is taken to a court to be assesed, Atticus, Tom’s attorney, defends Tom in saying that it was not in fact Tom who beat Mayella up, but is Mayella’s drunk dad who

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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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In the novel: To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman, accused Tom Robinson, an African American, of rape. The Ewell’s are very indigent and her father, Bob Ewell, gets drunk and abuses Mayella. Since Mayella is very poor, this makes her not so powerful. In Maycomb, Alabama, A poor white woman named Mayella Ewell who lives behind the town garbage dump, accuses Tom Robinson, an African American, of rape.

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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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