Examples Of Power In To Kill A Mockingbird

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How do you define power when it comes to race, class, and gender? Mayella has some power in To Kill A Mockingbird because she is a white female, however in class she is at the very bottom. The setting in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. In the book, a man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella. They go to trial and Tom gets convicted because he is an African American. All families were just coming out of the Great Depression, everyone was impoverished some were more than others. For Mayella she was very indigent. Although Mayella’s poor when it comes to race, she has power. In race Mayella has a great mass of power. Mayella’s white and in the 1930’s being white meant having a great deal of power. During this time the Jim Crow Laws were in effect. For example, in Maryland “Any white woman who shall suffer or permit herself to be got with child by a Negro or mulatto… shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less …show more content…
Mayella is a Ewell which means she does not have a education and she lives literally behind the garbage dump. Her yard is made up of a fence made of tree-limbs, broomsticks, and tool shafts. In one corner of the Ewell yard there was Maycomb bewildered because Mayella had six jars of beautiful red geraniums. This made everyone look because they did not know anyone that low and poor could have something nice. Coming out of the depression everyone was poor, some were poorer than others. Mayella’s family was not just poor, they were beyond poor. At the edge of the trial Judge Taylor said “We’ll convict this Negro, but get back to your dump.” In conclusion, Mayella does have power. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella’s a white female; however, she is in the lowest class. To sum it up, if you lived in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s and you were white you had power, if you were a female you had some power, although in class she had little to no power at

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