Cruelty can be expressed in every novel to display a theme or a point. In To Kill A Mockingbird cruelty is the main function. The characters in this novel, display cruelty and judgement through racism and those who are different the the normal person. The first main example of cruelty in the novel is Tom Robinson, who is a black man accused of raping a white women. His side of the story is that he never raped her, however, during this time period, people never believed a black man´s word, especially if was against a white man´s. Tom Robinson was harassed and belittled during the trail just because of his color. In addition, his trail was the entertainment in the town, his courtroom was filled with people, both black and white. The main reason his case got the attention of people was because he was black and the victim was white, however, the victim was lower class white, also considered white trash in the town. At the end of the trial, it was clear Tom did not commit the crime, instead it was the girl's father who raped her and then accused Tom. However, Tom was still found guilty of the crime and was sent to prison. Even with evidence pointing away from Tom, racism still ran through the jury´s blood, which lead them to still accusing Tom of a false crime. …show more content…
Atticus became the lawyer of Tom Robinson who would be defending him in court. Around town Atticus was a respected man, but people started to look and treat him differently after they heard he was defending a black man. People would say harsh things about him behind his back and even to his kids. It got to the point where the girl's father, who made the rape accusations, tried to hurt Atticus’ children. Additionally, people were cruel to Atticus but it never let it get to him, because he knew he was doing what was right, which lead to the theme of the