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Mayella's Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

638 Words3 Pages

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird Mayella Ewell's is a powerful young teenager. In the 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama Mayella set news to the small town, she made allegations of rape against Tom Robinson. Mayella is as powerful as the ocean when it takes you underwater. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird will show Mayella’s power by using Class, Race, and Gender. Power is or means having control over someone or something.
Although Mayella is powerful, class was where she suffered the most. “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin.. Its windows were merely opens in the walls….what passed for a fence was bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks, and tool shafts….Enclosed by this barricaded was a dirty fence…. One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Againsts the fence, a line, were six...jars holding brilliant …show more content…

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”). Tom Robinson is saying this quote because, he is trying to defend himself on the stand. Tom knows that he did not rape Mayella so he is trying to get his point across the jury and judge that he is innocent of the rape of Mayella Ewell..Tom should not have felt bad for a white woman because she has to chores. Mayella should have told Tom that that was part of her daily life. “ The evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all negro men are not to be trusted around women”. “(DBQ Is Mayella Powerful? 19)”
As the evidence shows Mayella Ewell is powerful due to her class, race, and gender, primarily due to her race. Mayella is an energetic and vigorous character in Harper Lee’s, To Kill A

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