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What Is Powerless In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Be honest, have you ever felt like you’re better than everyone else? How much do you desire power? What is power? Someone who’s controls everything and everyone or someone who’s poor who wants the power for themselves? In my perspective, everyone wants power. People who’s lost and has no power wants to get it, and people with a lot of power wants to keep it for themselves. Power, or having control over someone or other people’s lives, plays an extraordinary role in Harper Lee’s book called “To Kill a Mockingbird”. This novel takes place in a fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. The climax of this story is a rape trial that involves a Negro, Tom Robinson, and a white woman, Mayella Ewell. In the court’s eyes’ her power is clear, but is she that powerful? Because of her vulnerability as a woman and a very low-class status, she’s powerless, but her privilege as a white person in a racist society is very powerful. Mayella is powerless because of her gender. In the trial, it’s revealed that Mayella is physically, verbally, and sexually abused by her father. Because Mayella can often be intimidated by her father, as a result of her gender, she wasn’t able to stand up to him, and his abusive characteristics towards her. …show more content…

Trash of Maycomb County, is what the Ewell family was considered primarily because their property looked like trash, and they looked like trash as well. The quote, “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 (Doc E), shows that even though Mayella was able to lock up an innocent black man convicted, her family was still considered the lowest in class of the town. Mayella is socially secluded to the point that she has never been addressed with respect. She wants to change her situation, nut she is powerless to do so. She is a prisoner of her class and lacks the power to leave her

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Mayella Ewell is a poor white woman who lives in Maycomb County. Mayella’s house is a desolate Negro cabin behind the town’s trash dump. Her fence is made up of tree branches and broken tools. Despite all this, Mayella Ewell does have power. “Yes, suh.

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Mayella Ewell: To Pity Or Not To Pity, That Is The Question Do you not believe that your living conditions can affect who you are? In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main event that occurs is a trial between a black man, Tom Robinson, who is convicted of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. She is age 19, living in a town by the name of Maycomb. Mayella Ewell, who lives in poor conditions and has an unsupportive family, accuses Tom Robinson of forcing himself on top of her, taking advantage of her and abusing her.

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Imagine that your living in the 1930s, you’re a white woman, and you had just gotten “raped” by a black man or group of black men. This exact scenario happened in the critically acclaimed book To Kill a Mockingbird and in the real-life court case deemed the Scottsboro trial. Which in both the book and the court case, the characters, and people were shaped and influenced by society to become victims and accusers. This paper is going compare and contrast how the fictional character Mayella and the non-fictional plaintiff Victoria Price and Ruby Bates as painted victims and accusers by society.

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Mayella, a poor white girl, accused Tom Robinson, a black male, of raping her. Does Mayella have the ability to do something or be strong in her class, gender, and race? Mayella doesn’t have much power in her class and gender but she does have power in her race. First of all, Mayella isn’t powerful in her class.

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Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird was set in the southern states of America during the interwar period, a place and period of time where racism and sexism were predominant. This story highlights the plight of those that acted out against the dominant ideology. Some brave people began to speak and act upon what they believed in no matter what society said. A few women began to speak up which was very uncommon. Miss Maudie Atkinson, Calpurnia, and Scout Finch showed very strong characteristics.

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In court, they said “ Now don’t you be so confident, Mr.Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…”. This quote is saying because she is a white person that means that she will always win in court or get her way over a colored person. The people in the court say “that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes, men are not to be trusted…”. The quote is said, because that African Americans are liars that no one should trust or believe anything they say or do. Mayella most power is race because she is a white person and white people are the better people during this time.

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Although Mayella was powerful, due to her race, she was still a poor and young teenager. “Why were you so anxious to do that woman’s chores? Tried to help her, ‘you’re a mighty good fellow, ‘yes, suh, I felt sorry for her….’ ‘you felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her. (“DBQ Is Mayella Powerful? 21”).

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Mayella Ewell is a white woman in “To Kill A Mockingbird” that lives behind a dumpster. One reason she does not have power is her gender. Mayella is a woman, and being a woman in that time period was

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One would say she is not powerful because she is enclosed from the world, beaten by her father, and not very respected. For example, as Atticus asked Mayella to see if her father is good and tolerable to her, but she says “He does tollable, ‘cept when-”, ‘Except when he’s drinking?’ asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded. ”(Lee, Chapter 18) This would prove that Mayella has less power than usual when her father is drunk because, his gender as a male has the power over her and gets violent when drunk.

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In this instance, her class works to her advantage- being poor made people more sympathetic to her cause. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout states that “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin. . .”(Lee Document A). In many cases, when people are seen as weak, others rise to their defense and become advocates to their case. An example of this is last year’s world series: The Chicago Cubs were highly favored because they were “underdogs,” much like Mayella is.

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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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