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. 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. One would say this would already decrease her in having power, since she is a woman and women back then really did not have much rights or respect. But there was someone who was ever decent to her was Tom Robinson, an African American who was accused of her beating and sexually assaulting her. So one could say this could have potentially gave her power because he was a Negro, but having consequences because of her father.
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Show MoreI think Mayella is mostly powerful because of her race and here is how. There was quote on page nineteen of the DBQ that 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 here showed us that not one single colored man ever beat a case against another man. And since Miss Mayella is a female, Tom is definitely going to have a hard time winning against her. There was another quote on page twenty-one that said, “...
Her gender further makes her powerless when Tom was explaining that Mr. Ewell said, “He says you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya.” (Document B). Mr. Ewell would only refer to a woman like that because the word is mainly used against women. Mayella’s gender negatively impacts her power by causing her to be more vulnerable and regarded
Power comes into play very much in this situation. But does Mayella really have power? Some categories that her power is put into class, race, and gender. For instance, in everyday life we use class as a way of judgement. There are the richer ones, the middle class, and the poor, dirty, scums.
What many people don’t realize is how much of a mockingbird Mayella is. The reader follows only a small portion of Mayella’s story, but it is substantial enough for the reader to identify her as a victim of abuse. Mayella was abused by her father throughout her life and becomes manipulated to pin the blame for her own actions on the innocent. It becomes a chain reaction of sorts. Though Mayella isn’t described in vivid detail, she was an influential character in the book as well as a victim of the evil of Maycomb.
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.
The book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, features a southern family in the 1930’s. The Finches live in Maycomb Alabama, a town unfortunately plagued with racism. Atticus, a lawyer, decides to represent Tom Robinson. A black man. Going against the popular belief in his town, he risks his life and the lives of his children, Jem and Scout.
Abuse has a bad effect on children everywhere causing them to lash out in different ways as Mayella did in her environment. For example, kids that come from negligent families often have trouble connecting with others. Throughout the story, Mayella has shown signs that prove that she lacked simple social skills to understand who she should trust or when people are being nice to her. Further, Mayella exhibits attachment issues and tendency to take risky sexual decisions such as she had done with Tom Robinson, which essentially can be attributed to be consequence of abuse perpetrated by Bob Ewell and his out of control drinking habit. The fact that she knew the consequences of abuse should have been a deterrent to her misbehavior with Tom Robinson During Mayella’s testimony, Mayella’s father is exposed as an alcoholic who is intolerable when drunk.
Mayella was powerless in gender because she was always abused. “Mayella was beaten savagely by someone who lead almost exclusively with his left” (Document B). Based on this quote it shows that Mayella’s father had beaten her sexual, verbally, and physically. Tom Robinson also was crippled in his left hand which shows her father beat her. During the trial Atticus questions Mayella about if she loves her father and she response “he tollable, except when he is drinking” (Document B).
Truly i think Mayella does lack power because of class, after reading Doc A, i have a quote that might help you understand why she lacks power. “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind a garbage dump in what was one a black cabin it’s windows were nearly open spaces in the walls… what could
In To Kill A Mockingbird, based on class, gender, and race, Mayella Ewell does have power because, she has the power in the court and power over Tom. But one of her weakest points is her class, since she is poor, a lot of people look at them with no respect. But for her gender, she has power but little of it. During that time women had little power, but not as much as men. Mayella's strongest power is her race, she has power in court over Tom because she is white and Tom is African American.
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Power can be refer to as the ability to influence or change one’s opinion base on how an individual is being viewed by the human specie. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is simply about a girl, Scout, whose life is influenced both positively and negatively as a result of how society was created. In this book there is a side character, Mayella,; and because of her class and gender, she is powerless, but her race makes her powerful. With this in mind, powerless is a result of poverty, the reader can understand how Mayella’s class makes her powerless; she cannot not fit in due to her lack of money and her lack of hygiene and that makes everyone want to avoid her thus, makes her powerless. “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town dump the town dump in what was once a Negro cabin….(Document
Another reason how Mayella is powerful is by her gender. It states that he “... tried to help her…”. This is saying since Mayella is a girl that a guy will do anything to help a girl that needs help. It states “yes, suh I felt sorry for her…”. According to this statement, it
Although due to being a poor, uneducated woman whom is treated like an object, Mayella is not a powerful character. For 19 years of Mayella’s life she has been
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.
Bob Ewell, Mayella 's father, gets drunk and abuses Mayella. He possibly even sexually abused Mayella. Not to mention, Mayella had enough of the abuse and got an idea. In addition to this, Mayella thought since she was a white woman she could blame an African American man, Tom Robinson, of rape and if her father sees, he will