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A Comparison Of To Kill A Mockingbird And Mississippi Trial

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During segregation African Americans were treated poorly; the books To Kill a Mockingbird (TKM) and Mississippi Trial, 1955 (MT,1955) shows us this. In some places they were treated fair; the movie A Time To Kill (ATTK) shows us this. TKM and MT, 1955 were biased against African Americans, but ATTK was not.
First of all, in the book TKM, African American Tom Robinson was sentenced to jail for a crime he did not commit. Bob and Mayella Ewell, Bob’s daughter, accused Tom of raping Mayella. It was an unfair trial because they had no documentation that Tom Robinson raped Mayella Ewell and the jury was filled with racist whites. During the appeal, it was evident that Mayella was lying under troth to cover up for her drunken and abusive father, Bob Ewell, by her movements. For example, her eyes would shift a lot and after she said something, she would gaze at her father for endorsement. What really happened was Mayella tempted Tom; she was getting desperate for attention that wasn't her father's, but the jury didn't perceive it that way. Also, Mayella was beaten on her right side and Tom’s right arm was crippled from getting caught in a cotton gin when he was younger. The book says, “Atticus was trying to show, it …show more content…

His jury was also made up of whites but this one saw him as the regular human being he was. He was given the same rights as whites during his trial after all, he was just defending his impotent daughter whose innocence was completely destroyed for drunken pleasure. He also wounded a white officer in the process by accident, but the policeman comprehended and forgave him. He knew that hurting him was not his intentions. The jurors thought about what they would do in the same situation. He did what any human would have done for someone they loved dearly, and they grasped his

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Mayella feels guilty after lying under oath in court. Mayella lied about Tom Robinson raping her because she doesn't want her dad to beat her up if she tells the truth. PARTIES Members of the jury, the state will review the evidence against Mayella Ewell who let her greed influence her decision to lie under oath. While her father Bob Ewell forced her to lie about the case so he wouldn't be

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While this was occurring Tom ran out of the house because he was confused. The Ewells came up with a story stating that Tom raped Mayella and they went to court for it. Eventually, it was found out that Mayella lied to hide the embarrassment of trying to kiss an African American man along with trying to make herself feel better. Bob Ewell wanted to accuse Tom to cover his own tracks in abusing his daughter. Yet, with all this information and evidence Tom’s verdict was guilty.

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Imagine that your living in the 1930s, you’re a white woman, and you had just gotten “raped” by a black man or group of black men. This exact scenario happened in the critically acclaimed book To Kill a Mockingbird and in the real-life court case deemed the Scottsboro trial. Which in both the book and the court case, the characters, and people were shaped and influenced by society to become victims and accusers. This paper is going compare and contrast how the fictional character Mayella and the non-fictional plaintiff Victoria Price and Ruby Bates as painted victims and accusers by society.

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These novels both take place in small, racist towns. This leads to discriminatory actions occurring, including a court case in both novels. The court case in To kill a Mockingbird deals with a rape victim and her extremely racist father who blames a completely innocent man for his daughter's rape. This would likely not happen in a town against discrimination and segregation. In Mississippi Trial, 1955 the court case centers around a boy who was killed for whistling at a white woman.

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At that time, a white jury rarely called an African American man innocent. Just like in the Scottsboro trial, the white jury from To Kill a Mockingbird, found Tom guilty. “A smiling white face” might be the perfect way to describe the jury from To Kill a Mockingbird. Since it’s a fictional story, Lee could have

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Then some people thought that Tom was innocent but the judge decided to make Tom go to prison. In the book it said that Mayella hugged and kissed Tom on the cheek. From this I can infer that Mayella is desperate and can get away with this because Tom Robinson is a black person. This reminds me of a couple southern movies I’ve watched where black people are always the first to suspect because of their color. Tom Robinson on trial for his life said Bob Ewell yelled “whore I’ll kill you” when he saw Mayella kiss Tom from the window.

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In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley are two characters who represent the mockingbird. In the midst of finding who Boo truly is, Atticus Finch explains to his children, Jem and Scout, that it is a sin to kill the bird because they don’t do anything but make music. As the story progresses, and the two “mockingbirds” are being accused and attacked both verbally and physically, the identity of the mockingbirds surfaces. Tom Robinson was a crippled African American man whose left arm was a foot shorter than his right, where it was caught in a cotton gin.

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Mayella Ewell is the 19-year-old girl, who is white and also from a very poor Maycomb County family. Her father is Bob Ewell, who likes to drink alcohol and when he is drunk he beats his kids. Mayella is proving that there was not any rape from Tom Robinson, and that all proof of her injuries is showing that Bob Ewell beat her: “Do you love your father, Miss Mayella?” was his next. “Love him, whatcha mean?” “I mean, is he good to you, is he easy to get along with?”

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When Mayella, and Bob Ewell, lie to the jury, they do it to make themselves look good. They went out of their way to make an official case about the scenario. Therefore it put Tom Robinson’s own life on trial for something he did not commit. Bob, got to do The only reason Mayella, and what they did, was because of the racial discrimination during that time. Everything that took place in the courtroom shows the loss of childhood innocence and extreme racial prejudice.

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(Lee, pg. 177). Mr. Ewell did and when he grabbed the pencil and wrote with his left hand it showed everyone exactly what Atticus wanted it to show. With most of the injures obtained by Mr. Ewell’s daughter Mayella being on the left side of her body it showed that it was possible that Mr. Ewell beat his daughter and not Tom. It made even more sense when Tom was asked to stand and everyone saw that his left arm was nothing but a nub; which was from when he got it caught in Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s cotton gin when he was a boy. This section really shows how wise Atticus is because he brought up points about the case that no one even thought about but in the end were major points about the

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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.

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In our society, innocent people, known as mockingbirds, experience prejudice in their lives. A/T: In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Background: Tom Robinson is a black person who’s was accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell which he has never done. For this reason, Atticus Finch was appointed to be his lawyer. As a result, Atticus takes a stand for him by approving his case and standing up for him, but Tom was still found guilty.

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Because the jury did not favor black men, Tom Robinson did not receive a fair trial, although Atticus made a great case. Segregation directly disobeys the fourteenth amendment, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” Maycomb Alabama is where the story, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place. Tom Robinson’s trial out come was not based on factual evidence. Mayella was lying to the jury, while Tom was completely innocent.

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The trial pits the evidence of the white Ewell family against Tom 's evidence. According to the Ewells, Mayella asked Tom to do some work for her while her father was out, and Tom came into their house and forcibly beat and raped Mayella until her father appeared and scared him away. Tom 's version is that Mayella invited him inside, then threw her arms around him and began to kiss him. Tom tried to push her away. When Bob Ewell arrived, he flew into a rage and beat her, while Tom ran away in fright.

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