Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The Tom Robinson case displays the brutality of both social and racial prejudice. Despite the jurors long decision making process, they decided to vote along racial lines (which is not a surprise in Maycomb) without any regard for truth or justice. The people involved in the case are Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, Atticus Finch, Bob Ewell. Tom is being accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella, and this allows the author, Harper Lee, to dig deeper into issues of prejudice in the city of Maycomb.

To begin with, the trial gives readers an opportunity to witness Atticus at work. Atticus seems to be an unrealistic character because he is portrayed as the “perfect human”, thanks to his independent views of the racist society in their town. Mayella

The trial portrays the prejudice that existed in Maycomb during the 1930s. During this time, white women were not supposed to have anything to do with black men. In fact, if Mayella’s attempt to kiss Tom had come up during the trial, she would have rather let Mr. Robinson die than let that happen. Tom is a respectful man who was kind enough to help Mayella whenever she asked. When Mayella tried to kiss him he had no idea what to do. If he tried keep her away from him, it would have been classified as assault. Similarly, he could not allow her to kiss him because that would show that Mayella had some type of involvement with Tom and he had not done anything to stop it; both situations were set up for Tom’s failure. He decided to run away when Bob Ewell arrived because he knew that no matter what he did, he was in trouble. In the trial, Atticus himself says that Bob and Mayella have already assumed that they will undoubtedly be considered over a black person, so he asks the jury to try to overcome this prejudice; the jury might have taken offence thanks to Tom's remark of feeling sorry for