Power, isn’t it something we all want? This court case, we set in a rape crime that has supposedly been committed by a young black fellow named Tom Robinson. The victim of this crime is Mayella Ewell and she’s white and a young girl. In the 1930s racism was a big factor in this case. Now does Mayella have more power because of race?
Mayella is very loquacious when it comes to talking about her father’s drinking problems. “He’s tollable, ‘cept when-’” and “Except when he’s drinking?” asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded(Doc B). ” We know that Mayella’s father beat her, because she was hit on the right side of the face, and her father is left handed. It was reprehensible to accuse Tom of hitting Mayella, when his arm was partially amputated.
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.
“‘Except when he’s drinking?’ asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded(Document B).” Readers can assume that this quote is trying to convey that as a result of Mayella’s gender, a female, she is powerless and incapable of defending herself against her father, who is always beating her up when he is drunk. “We don’t know but there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell is beating savagely by someone who led exclusively with his left hand(Document B).” As stated in the last two sentences, this sentence is saying that Mayella is physically weak because of her gender, therefore, she was too feeble and could not fend herself from the savage beast, her father, that harmed her. “Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with his chair tipped against the railing(Document B).”
“Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her.” (Doc:E) Tom helped Mayella with chores and not for one penny because he felt sorry for her and for her being white and left him vapid. In this time period race overpowered everything. Although Mayella is powerless when it comes to class and gender.
Mayella, injured beyond repair by the forces of poverty and by the hatred that surrounds her and her family Mayella’s father forces her to lie about what really happened between her and Tom Robinson Although Mayella knows that she can tell the truth about the trial her father forces her to lie about what Tom Robinson really did. All Mayella wants is attention from someone because she has never felt that feeling before because of the way her father treats her. Although Mayella has her flaws, she does not deserve to be harmed and mistreated because truly she has not harmed anyone. This leads to the ultimate act of innocence displayed by Tom
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.
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.
Mayella is a woman so she gets respect from people and . Mayella was also powerful by having everyone trust her over a black male who was innocent, but Mayella won the case because she is a woman and she is trusted over Tom Robinson. In document Mayella uses her class as a way of being powerful and using it in the trial scene of Tom Robinson. Mayella lives in a “fix”, she is poor and she uses that as an advantage to make people feel sorry for her. In document E when Tom says “I felt right sorry for her suh” he felt how Mayella was treated and wanted to help her.
Mayella is white, which means the other gender looks down her, they come to the conclusion that she is weaker and lesser than they are, but on the other hand, she does have major white privileges and could possibly get a colored man to do whatever she wanted him to do. That’s another factor that makes her powerful in race. Furthermore, does she have power in gender? Well, she is a young lady, people like that do tend to get trampled over or silenced or taken advantage of. She uses that term “taken advantage of” when she is in court testifying.
Chapter 8 of To Kill A Mockingbird is one of Mrs. Bauman's favorite chapters to read. Chapter 8 is one of the best chapters because of the events that take place. This chapter helps the reader to understand more about who the characters really are. Jem is a critical thinker and analyzes the issues at hand. An example is when Jem and Scout build a snowman that resembles Mr. Avery, instead of taking it down and starting over Jem simply adds more to the snowmans appearance. Another event that takes place is Miss Maudie’s house burning down. Everyone in the neighborhood pitches in to save what they can, but the house burns to the ground. The fact that the entire town pitches in to help Miss Maudie shows that the town is actually very thoughtful
this plays a very big part in this novel.if you weren't white ,you literally had no power whatsoever.this helps Mayella in the court case. the jury(all white males)were more likely to believe her story more than Tom Robinson's.even though it was obvious that Mayella's father was the one that beat up Mayella they still found Tom Robinson guilty. They thought that it was a ludicrous idea that Tom would be innocent. Mayella got hit on the right eye,which means that a left -handed person must have hit her.but Tom Robinson's whole left arm is severely crippled ,it got caught in a cotton gin and it crushed his left arm ,shoulder,and hand.
Power: the amount of control one has over their own life, as well as the life of others. In the story, To Kill A Mockingbird, an African American man named Tom Robinson is accused of rape even though he was the one who was attacked. He is accused of raping a woman named Mayella Ewell. We will be seeing how powerful she is based on her class, gender, and race. We will be doing this by examining several documents on each of the three.
She also was sexually abused because Tom Robinson said that “She says she has never kissed a grown man before… She says what her papa do to her don’t count. ”(Doc B) So Mayella’s gender makes her less powerful because she is a
It was a regular school day, In Mrs. MCcombs room, 3rd Grade. The only different thing about the day was that we had a substitute, she was pretty strict. But I didn't mind, I didn't think anything of it-at first. When we were doing a silent writing time, I started whispering to my table neighbor, she noticed and told me to stop. But then my table neighbor told me a joke, and made me laugh, I laughed quietly and tried to be as silent as I could but the substitute still heard me. She slowly walked over.