What Makes Mayella Ewell Powerful

Mayella Ewell is powerful, even though she does not have much of anything she is a smart, white, woman. She is a powerful woman because she knew how to plan everything so she could get rid of her father. She made sure all of her siblings were not at home. Mayella knew when her father was coming home so she kissed Tom Robinson. When Mayella kissed Tom it made her father angry, so he tried chasing Tom. Mayella knew her father would be upset she was with an African American man. Mayella knew Tom would either be killed or arrested. All Mayella wanted was to get away from her abusive father. Mayella had been abused mentally and physically and she finally made up a plan to get out. Mayella also knew Tom would come in to help her out because he …show more content…
Such as when when Mr. Gilmer is questioning Tom and says “Are you being impudent to me, boy?” he called Tom “boy” instead of “Sir” or “Mister”. If Tom was a white man he would have been more respected. When Mayella is being questioned by Atticus he calls her “Ma’am” and “Miss” and Mayella says that Atticus is mocking her. The reason she thinks he is mocking her may be because she is not respected by Bob Ewell and maybe not even by anyone in town. In chapter nineteen it says “Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world…: white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes (the Ewells’ nearest neighbors) wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white.” Mayella is so poor that no one wants to talk to her and no one respects …show more content…
Such as when when Mr. Gilmer is questioning Tom and says “Are you being impudent to me, boy?” he called Tom “boy” instead of “Sir” or “Mister”. If Tom was a white man he would have been more respected. When Mayella is being questioned by Atticus he calls her “Ma’am” and “Miss” and Mayella says that Atticus is mocking her. The reason she thinks he is mocking her may be because she is not respected by Bob Ewell and maybe not even by anyone in town. In chapter nineteen it says “Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world…: white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes (the Ewells’ nearest neighbors) wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white.” Mayella is so poor that no one wants to talk to her and no one respects her. Gender issues do not occur as often as racial and class issues, but in chapter nineteen, eighteen, and twenty Tom Robinson talks about Mayella kissing him. Tom says “She reached up an’ kissed me ‘side of th’ face. She says she never kissed a grown man before…. She says what her papa do to her don’t count….” This could be a gender issue because Bob Ewell is taking advantage of Mayella because she is a female. Bob abuses Mayella mentally and physically because he knows Mayella is small and probably too weak to fight back since she is a small