Cruel Times The cruelty in this book is seen through the situations of Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Maycomb's reaction to Atticus taking the Tom Robinson case It is very unsettling. Tom Robinson's case was a very unique in that he did absolutely nothing wrong and was still in court all because of his skin. "There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life." (Lee, 220). This book is based on the 1930’s In Alabama one of the most prevalent racist states in the U.S, and this quote really puts that in perspective, cause even when a man’s life is on the line specifically a black man people, people would rather have the innocent black man put to death instead of the guilty white man which is truly sickening. Another example is this, the night Jem, Scout, and Dillion went to the Radley …show more content…
“Lemme tell you somethin’ now billy, you know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.” “Yeah but he aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.” (Lee, 165) This quote is purely just ignorance and prejudice, this quote is a good example of how most of the town feels, they are mad at atticus not for taking the case, but for actually trying to give Tom a fair trial. People in this town in this time period were extremely racist and prejudice, and it’s very clearly shown in this quote, at first the man says, you know the court chose him to defend this negro; meaning they didn’t think it was bad to be appointed, the townspeople thought it was a terrible idea and decision for Atticus to actually give this his all, this also shows how the town has very little respect for Atticus, as soon as he took the case people started turning on him for simply defending an innocent