Who Is Powerless In To Kill A Mockingbird

Everyone wants to have power, but there are some things that stop us from achieving power. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” the one thing we have questions about is “Where does power lie with Mayella Ewell?” Mayella is white, poor women who live in Maycomb, Alabama, And due to being poor and a women, Mayella is powerless. Her class and gender puts her at the bottom of the power spectrum. This might seem odd since Mayella is white, but that’s the only thing that her makes her powerful; race. Mayella is overall powerless; she has no power except for the fact she’s white. Mayella’s family lives in poverty and because of this she is powerless, because of her class. Mayella lives (DOC A) “Behind the towns garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin…

In Mayella trial it had become evident that Mayella was sexually, verbally, and physically abused by her father. During the trial he tried to intimidate her by leaning forward while she was going to tell the truth to Atticus about her father and how he treats her. (DOC B) “Do you love your father Miss Mayella? “He does Tollable, ‘Cept when-“the reason why Mayella stop was when she saw him lean closer in his chair in an attempt to threatened into lying. (DOC B) “Except when” “Except when nothing” said Mayella “I said he does tollable” When Mayella had said this she had sat back again. “Except when he’s drinking? Atticus askes so gently that Mayella nodded”. Mayella seems to be physically abused by her father, because if she had said that herself she would have been ‘beaten savagely” (DOC B). In Addition to being abused, Mr. Ewells had verbally abused her too. (DOC B) “He says you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya” when he saw that Mayella was trying to advance on Tom. He says this word because he saw Mayella and Tom together. Also Mayella was being sexually abused by her father too, when she was advancing on tom she made that very clear. (DOC B) “She reached up an’ kissed me on the side th’ face. She says she never kissed a grown man before…. What her papa do to her don’t count” When she says what her papa does to her doesn’t count, that means her father abuses her sexually. Both of these