Jack Kelly

A Study of Power in the Old South

People who have power have always had a decided advantage over people with no power.
This was especially true in the south during the 1930s. That is the setting for Harper Lees To
Kill a Mockingbird. Lees novel is about a white southern girl, Mayella Ewell, charging an
African American man, Tom Robinson, of rape. The novel focuses in part on their trial. This trial
and the events surrounding it reveal truths about power in the south. Power can be defined as
having control over your life and the lives of others. Using this definition of power, can we say
that Mayella is powerful? Mayella gets no power from her class and gender. Mayella wins her
case primarily because she is white, so she has some power from her race. That power, however,
that she gets from race is insignificant to the power that other white people have.

In the old south people were racist. Mayella is white ,and Robinson is black.
Mayella ends up winning her case against Robinson based on racial prejudices. The only way
that Mayella could have won her case is if people convicted based on race.(Document D)
Mayella does have some power in race. She was able to change Robinsons life and the lives of
his family. (Document A) Mayella definitely had power over Robinson, a person who had to flee
even though he committed no crime. (Document D) Any white person, however, would have
power over him and won the case. Everything is relative. The power one has is based on how
much power other people have. Mayella Ewell has less power than most other white people. The
Ewells are not treated like African American people, and they are not treated like white people.
They are a class in between. (Document E) If Mayella had as much power as other white people
Jem would not have thought that Tom would have had a chance to be set free. (Document D). If

Jack Kelly

the Ewells had as much power as other white people they might have been treated like heroes
after the trial, as Mr. Ewell expected. (Document A) Mayella gets some power from her race, but
the power she gets cannot compare to that of other white people.

The Ewell family is on the lowest rung of the social ladder. White people would not
associate with the Ewells because of how the Ewells lived. (Document E) The Ewells lived in the
dump of Maycomb. Mr. Ewell did not work to keep his property clean and maintained. The
Ewells were in a class so low that they did not mind living in such horrible conditions. Mayella
tried to to improve the way she lived by planting flowers and trying to keep clean. She attempts
to move herself up in society, but she fails to change her life. That is the definition of being
powerless. (Document A) Mayella show other signs of being powerless in her class. When she is
being cross-examined by Atticus Finch, the lawyer charged with defending Robinson, Finch
treats her with respect that she is not used to getting. Finch calls her maam and Ms. Mayella
during the trial and Mayella takes offense to it. She calls it sass. She thinks that Mr. Finch is
mocking her. Mayella is a person from a class so low that she is not treated with respect.

Throughout history women have always been considered secondary to men. Mayella is a
girl in the south and she has been overpowered by men her whole life. Mayella has been abused
by her father many times. During her trial she tells Atticus almost without meaning to that her
father is abusive when he is drinking. Robinson testifies that when Mayella was assaulting him
she said, ...what me papa do to me dont count... This indicates that Mayella has been sexually
abused. Mayella has also been physically abused. She was beaten on the right side of her face.
Meaning that she was attacked by a person that was left handed. Robinson, her alleged attacker,

Jack Kelly

cannot use his left hand. Mr. Ewell ,on the other hand, is left handed. Along with sexual and
physical abuse, one may expect verbal abuse as well. According to Robinsons testimony,
Mayella has been verbally abused. When Mr. Ewell saw Robinson and Mayella in the room, he
yelled obscenities at his daughter. (Document B) Because in the society of the 1930s women
were expected to be subservient to men, Mayella never fought back. If Mayella had been male
she could have physically stood up to her father and made him stop. Her inability to stop this
abuse shows how powerless she is.

As well as being physically abused because she is female, Mayella has also been socially
abused. As Mayella is nineteen years old, she can legally move out. It would, however, be
socially unacceptable to leave her father before she married. Jim Crow laws would have
prevented her from marrying an African American man. No white man would come near
Mayella. (Document E) Mayellas gender keeps her from leaving. Her father also takes
advantage of her gender socially during Robinsons trial. When Finch asks her if her father is
tolerable Mr. Ewell sits up and stares her down. (Document B) He took advantage of the
subservience society forced her to have towards men. Since Mayella cannot change her life
because of gender-based influences, she is powerless.

Mayella is powerless. She is not able to change her life or the lives of others. She has no
power in class and gender. Race does provide some power, but relative to other white people she
has little power from her race. Mayella is stuck where she is in life. She cannot change her life
by herself. She has no power in the old south.