Race is part of the story that ties everything together. The Tom Robinson trial had a negative outcome because of race. As Atticus was defending Tom the jury would still lean towards Bob and Mayella Ewell’s side of the story, because Bob was a strong, white man and Tom is a poor, black man. Atticus Finch received a lot of hate while he was defending Tom. The people of Maycomb did not agree with a white man defending a black man.
Not only did he not commit the wrongful act people accused him of, he never acted wrongfully or illegally. Many people knew Tom as a truly good man with a good heart. To the hard-working, dedicated, and loving, Tom, to perpetrate such a crime against a lady, seemed unthinkable. Yet, because MayElla dissembled both his character and the facts, he found himself desperately needing Atticus’s help to prove his innocence of this terrible
The saddening thing is, that the whole scenario started because Mayella attempted to seduce Tom, and her father found out. Filled with rage, Mr. Ewell beat his daughter, he found it unacceptable that his daughter fancied a black man. Then, he claimed that Tom raped his daughter to cover everything up. There are even cases such as Tom’s happening to this day, such as the case of Miguel Angel Peña Rodriguez Vs. Colorado. The jury was corrupted by bias thoughts which resulted in an unfair trial.
It’s human nature to want to protect ourselves from danger or getting in trouble. The same thing happens in To Kill a Mockingbird by the majority of the characters whenever something happens that incriminates them. A demonstration of self-preservation in the novel is when Atticus is cross-examining Mayella Ewell in court. During the cross-examination, Atticus says, “What did your father see in the window, the crime of the rape or the best defense to it? Why don’t you tell the truth, child, didn’t Bob Ewell beat you up?” (Lee 251).
In this next quote, Bob is testifying about how Tom raped his daughter and Atticus is defending Tom throughout the court case. This begins to show how the destruction of innocence started to effect Tom in the court case. Bob lives on the outside of town where the African Americans live. He is considered an outcast by the people of Maycomb. Bob testified accusing Tom of rape, but there was a lot of evidence in the sheriff's testimony to prove that Bob was lying in his testimony, like how the sheriff said that when he heard about Bob's daughter.
Tom was accused of raping a white woman who was Mayella Ewell, Mayella said he raped her while he was helping her with chores. She later on tells the readers that it was false allegations. The reason why she didn 't tell the truth at her first trial was because, Mayella was afraid of being embarrassed because she kissed a black male. She rather have an innocent man get charged with a crime than that. “However, Robinson was transferred from the state prison to Maycomb 's county jail on Saturday, two days before he stood trial on Monday, and Atticus had to defend him against a lynch mob”.
There were definite finger marks on her gullet—” “All around her throat? At the back of her neck?” “I’d say they were all around, Mr. Finch.” (Lee 179) This suggests that Mayella had many scars and wounds all over her body. If Tom is not the one who raped her, it is Bob who harmed her like this. Therefore, it can be predicted that Bob beat Mayella as usual, but more harshly to make her accuse
When Tom comments during a conversation with Mr.Gilmer that he ‘’felt sorry for her (Mayella) ‘’ Lee then widens the vision of Tom as an innocent man with ‘‘the witness realized his mistake and shifted uncomfortably in the chair.’’ In this part Tom Robinsons admits his sorrow for a white woman, which was in that time a theme unspeakable of. Here the purpose of the author was to show Tom as just a human being feeling for another one while being harshly treated for his honesty and goodness. Through the rest of the trial he does his best, however the chance he will be found innocent is so small only because of his skin-color as he
Boo Radley put a blanket over Scout when she was cold and there was a fire going on at Miss Maudie’s place. The other example Tom Robinson can also be proven as a good person. Everyone thought he was guilty of raping Mayella Ewell as she had accused him and there was no way he could be innocent as he was a Negro and people pretty much saw Negroes as scum. However the evidence such as the fact that Mayella was beaten on the left side of her face while Tom’s left arm is mangled so he can’t use it and there’s no way he could've used his arm to beat her. Atticus has a very strong argument that Tom Robinson was innocent and that he was actually a good person on the inside who would never hurt a fly.
The strong connections and powerful reasoning from start to finish allows the jury to understand and recognize the veracity behind the case as a whole. That being, a far more larger problem than the false accusation of rape and beating, the issue of racism in the given time period. Overall, Atticus delivers an impressive approach to the case, and undoubtedly defends Tom Robinson’s