Tom Robinson Trial

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, two children grow up facing issues of race, poverty, and identity in Mississippi during the 1930s. Their family bonds even as a trial for life continues to create discourse through the town’s normal dynamic. Throughout the novel, there are many opportunities where readers can learn life lessons alongside the characters which in turn allows for lessons then to be expanded on in their own lives after reading. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee uses her characters’ false pretenses to prove that appearances can be inaccurate.

I am reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I am on page 304. This book is about Tom Robinson’s trial. Bob Ewell is accusing Tom of raping his daughter, Mayella. There is no evidence that Tom committed this crime although he is still found guilty. In this paper I will be evaluating.

In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”, the issue of Southern Womanhood is brought up many times throughout the novel. Lee uses many different characters to help show how she viewed Southern Womanhood. Specifically she uses, Scout, Mayella Ewell, and Scout’s Aunt Alexandra. In "To Kill A Mockingbird", Harper Lee uses specific characters to show how negative of an impact Southern Womanhood used to have.

“If there’s just one kind of folks, why can they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other” (Lee 304). This quote is one of the most significant ones in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird because it is referring to the human race and how we are all practically the same, and yet people persecute one another because of racism. In the town of Maycomb, Alabama, one thing most people have in common is racism.To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small Alabama town during the 1930’s. In the town of Maycomb, Alabama, one thing most people have in common is racism. This book is in the perspective of a young girl who is not always aware of what is going on around her. The racism of the

Throughout chapters 16-23 the Ewells show many ways of them lying. The two Ewells who lie during the Tom Robinson trial are Mayella and Bob Ewell. I feel Mayella and Bob lie to get the innocent man, Tom Robinson in trouble, therefore making up lies is not right. First of all, why would Mayella lie? Mayella lies to protect her father. If she doesn’t protect her father he could end up in prison for a long time, also she may never see him again. It would just make the Ewells look really bad. Like many people in Maycomb she feels a black should never win before a white. So she feels that she has to make Tom Robinson the criminal and get him in trouble, because he’s black and her father is white. Really there is no who did the right or who did the wrong.

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has a theme of change of perspective develops through characterization using point of views from the Finch family. The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in the 1930 's during the Great Depression and focuses on the Finch family as they learn lessons, witness a trial that creates understanding and confusion, and the Finch children growing up.

On the surface, it could seem at first that we are born into a world blanketed with hopeless, moral fog, but throughout the fog, which is created by none other than the forces of conscience and emotion that pumps through our mortal bodies, are the wandering, searching souls of our innocence, praying to emerge unscathed, and our corruption preying on the previously named. Three characters in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” remarkably portray separate, yet very evident representations of the infamous mockingbird and contribute a view that maybe there are more mockingbirds then what is first assumed. These three characters: “Boo” Radley, Scout Finch, and Tom Robinson, resided in the slow, quaint, old town of Maycomb, County, Alabama. In

Just one year after To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published, it was awarded the illustrious Pulitzer Prize as well as several other literary awards. This novel displays the prejudice and discrimination against African American people that was present in the south during the 1930s, which was during the Great Depression. Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion that is formed before actual knowledge or experience, and discrimination is the unfair treatment of others. Discrimination includes but is not limited gender, race, and social status. Some examples of prejudice and discrimination shown in To Kill A Mockingbird are Aunt Alexandra pushing Jean Louise (Scout) to behave “like a lady” would, Boo Radley being prejudged for staying inside

Equality is a term that is defined as “the state of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability” (Dictionary.com). In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, equality dictates how several characters are portrayed in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, at a time of racism, hate, and prejudice. Because of these topics being such an everyday obstacle for characters like Walter Cunningham Jr. and Burris Ewell, two students at the school, Boo Radley, a scared neighbor that saves a life, and Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly convicted of a crime, the idea of equality has a different effect on each character’s life.

Imagine you caught your child doing something considered taboo by all of society. Would you lie to cover up your shame, or would you face the rest of the world and own it? In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout are the children of lawyer Atticus Finch, but they are not the problem. Mayella Ewell is a 19 year old poor white woman who claims that Thomas Robinson, a black man, beat her then raped her. But, this might not be the case. As Atticus goes to work to prove Tom innocent, you can recognize that Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father, chose to lie his way out. In an article by Andrew Cockburn, and American Dreams: Lost and Found by Studs Terkel, the themes that are prominent are the same as the ones found in To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 1931, two white women wrongfully accused nine African American men of rape. Similarly to Mr. Robinson’s case, despite the multitude of evidence that exonerated the men, all but one was sentenced to death. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a realistic fiction novel that highlights the racial tension of the early 1930s. The narrator, Scout, tells the reader about her early years of life in Maycomb, a quaint town in Alabama. She emphasizes Tom Robinson’s case, and how her and her community members were affected by it. Through dualism and harmony, Tom is the ultimate sacrifice for human progress in relationship to equality of mankind. This is evident through the length of the jury’s deliberation, Tom and Mayella’s nonstereotypical relationship,

Secondly, even when Tom is on trial at a chance he might die, he still shows kindness and compassion like a mockingbird. During the trial, Tom was called up by Atticus to give his side of the story. Ironically tom would show kindness and compassion to Mayella he would often help her bust up a chifforobe for no charge and for no reason just feeling that it’s the right thing to do. When Tom was on the stand he explained that she would offer him money but Tom would not take it “she said, I reckon I’ll have to give you a nickel wont I? ‘no ma’am there aint no charge” (pg. 191). When Tom would help Mayella he would do it out of the kindness of his heart for no money, this shows how kind Tom is even thought he is poor he still turns down money from Mayella. Tom is a very helpful and compassionate man even when things seem odd. “yes, suh I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try

For example, he went out of his way to help Mayella with something in her house. She had made a move on him when her father saw, so she accused Tom of rape so she was not to be seen as a white girl going for a black man. Before Tom's trial, a mob tries to kill Tom to send a message to other African-Americans in the community and to assert white domination. All of the evidence Atticus had shown at the trial had clearly shown that Tom was innocent, but the jury said he was guilty. Because of the discrimination in Maycomb in the 1930s, black people always got the short end of the stick. During the trial, every African-American who was there to support Tom had to sit up in the balcony where it was hot. Discrimination is also shown where Tom is used as Bob Ewell's scapegoat so he didn't get in trouble for beating Mayella. The jurors thought that was something Tom would do because he's

Everyone of us, has judged a person on their appearance or rumors before. How much of your lives are affected by these judgements, could they ruin a friendship or something more before it even starts. Jem and Scout learn the effects of judging people before you get to know them In to kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One major theme of the book is don't judge a person on their skin color, reputation, or rumors. Actions speak louder than words in this book and some could even save lives.

I agree with you that the matter of Tom shows the loss of innocence. Harper addresses the complex issues of categorizing people into different groups according to the physical traits such as skin color, hairstyle and some other biological differences between races. Tom reminds us about the two opposite sides regarding discrimination such as the people who don’t support racism to those who do. Tom Robinson characterized innocent blacks who were being threatened by the senseless prejudice that dominated the society that time. Scout wasn’t understood why Tom was imprisoned guilty. Atticus said, "It 's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (Lee 98) although he was innocent, the court jailed him because of his color. He was black.