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Misjudged In To Kill A Mockingbird

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“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is set in the racist county of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. All different types of people live in this town, the gossips, the unwanted, the misjudged and so on. Arthur Radley otherwise known as Boo is misunderstood and misjudged throughout the story. Categorized as a monster, life was hard for him so he always stayed inside. Tom Robinson, a black man living in very racist times, also had it hard. He was being accused of something he didn’t do that would have serious consequences if found guilty, like raping Mayella Ewell. Metaphorically speaking some people may find Tom to be more of a …show more content…

Every day as Tom heads off to his job he passes the Ewell house. Mayella the oldest and daughter of Bob asks him to do little things for her like chopping up wood and fetching water for her as was seen in chapter 19, “...choppin’ kindlin’, totin’ water for her.” Tom knew of the family's circumstances so he never took the money she offered for his work. He wasn’t selfish, for he could have just taken the money and not even thought about how it affected her family but he puts himself in her shoes. Tom is also misjudged throughout the course of the story. The same girl he did work for every day started a trial against him saying he raped her. Her claim should have been disproven in many ways, there was enough evidence to contradict it but the jury is so racist they look right past it. Tom was found guilty and sent to Enfield Prison Farm waiting for an appeal even though he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Finally, as Tom was in that prison he got sick and tired of waiting for an appeal so he made a run for it, and was shot 17 times to be stopped. This ends up killing him and once the news makes it to the town it just rolls off their shoulders. The town thinks it was a typical death in the fact that he didn’t, “...have no plan, no thought for the future…” (322) and the fact that he even tried was just proving he was guilty. Tom just like Boo was misjudged but really innocent, nobody could overlook his race and for that reason, many problems

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