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To kill a mockingbird summary chapter 1-12
To kill a mockingbird summary chapter 1-12
To Kill a Mockingbird Summary
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Mayella Ewell, the prosecutor, blamed Tom Robinson, the defendant, of rape on the night of November 21, 1935 at Mayella’s home in Maycomb, Alabama. The trial brought up included Tom Robinson, Mayella and Robert Ewell, Heck Tate, and Atticus Finch. Heck Tate and Robert Ewell were the witnesses for Mayella’s side and Atticus was the lawyer to Tom Robinson. This was such an important trial, whether the event actually happened or not, because Tom is a black man and Mayella is a white woman. The evidence provided shows that Tom most likely did not rape or beat Mayella, but her father was the one who could have beat her.
What is a hero? To most, it’s probably the classic superhero- the one with superpowers and can fly. To others, it might be a fictional character with a magic wand or a demigod in a prophecy. To some, it might be a real life person- a famous one or the ones who raised you.
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.
To Kill a Mockingbird is famous for its controversy. In fact, it has been banned from being read at many schools for its use of racial, sexual, and political content, all of these aiding the book’s “big ideas”. To Kill a Mockingbird has many themes. For example, one is about racial injustice. You would think a jury would establish their final decision based upon the facts, but in this book, the jury had already made up its mind once it heard that the case was a white man versus a black man.
Tom Robinson suffered a greater form of prejudice, racism. Unaltered pure racism. This is shown when Atticus says to Jim “Tom Robinson is a coloured man, Jim, no jury in this part of the world’s going to say ‘we think your guilty but not really’ on a charge like that.” (TKMB 219) The belief was that
Tom Robinson would have lived if it were not for the citizens of Maycomb. This situation is shown by the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is set in the 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama. Tom was charged with raping a 19-year-old woman named Mayella Ewell. Through this trial, the different social standings of white and colored people make themselves known. Tom was given an unfair trial simply due to people’s beliefs that they are unwilling to change.
When he was announcing the final verdict, “Judge Taylor was polling the jury: ‘guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty…” (Lee 112). Before the trial even happened, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” meaning he knew he was not going to win (Lee 128). The jury was biased from the beginning because it was all white. The case wasn't fair because Tom never had a chance of winning because he was going up against a white man and a white man would always win against a black man.
Tom is not given a fair trial because he is a black man and the jury is made up completely of white men. Tom Robinson gets charged for the Rape of Mayella. Bob Ewells words are given more importance because he is a white man, racism can be seen very clear in this particular period of time. Unfortunately racism is still taking place all over the world, specifically in America.
Despite these facts, and the fact that MayElla Ewell basically admitted to perjury, Tom Robinson was still convicted and later murdered brutally in the same way that Rodney King was beat brutally. Ultimately, black-white trials were a series of back and forth situations, he-said-she-said encounters, whose word is more valuable than the other paradoxes. And whether or not an African American individual being tried with a crime was actually guilty, if they were put up against a white person, their word would automatically be unavailing (or futile) in comparison. No matter what they said, they were still black and that was enough for most juries to
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.
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”.
Don’t see how any jury could convict on what we heard-’...’Now don’t be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man,”’ on page 279 paragraphs 6-7. Harper Lee then continues on page 282 paragraphs 2-3 to write, “A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson…’Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty.’” Then, on page 285 paragraph10 it says, “‘They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep.’” This all comes together to prove that the children, Jem especially, saw how the verdict should have been and then goes on to suggest that if the jury had been made up of kids the verdict would have been much faster and would have been right because the children would not have been blinded by public opinion. So, the irony of Jem believing Tom Robinson would be free and the belief everyone else had including Atticus that the jury would convict Tom Robinson, shows that adults have come to believe that justice no longer matters, while hypocritically teaching their children that it
When someone doesn’t commit a crime, their unwavering story and ample evidence should prove their innocence. Yet in Tom’s case, the other side’s story changes repeatedly and incorporates many holes but Tom still found himself convicted. According to Mr. Tate, Tom Robinson punched Mayella’s,” right eye, Mr. Finch”(Lee 225). Not only does this differ from Mayella’s retelling in which her left eye is punched, this would be difficult for Robinson, with his left arm mangled from a cotton gin. He can’t blacken her right eye while choking her but the jury only saw his dark skin.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel about a girl named Scout and her family during the course of three summers. The story takes place in Alabama in the 1930s during the Great Depression and segregation. Scout’s father Atticus defends a black man named Tom in a rape case against a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Tom’s character teaches us readers about courage in many ways. He displays real courage by speaking his mind while in court.
Assuming all men are created equal like Jefferson said, then slaves should have never existed. Mr. Finch adds “ a jury is only as strong as the men that make it up.” Granted the men that make it up do not believe two men of different races are equal. Tom should be given a fair trail with an unbias jury. Assuming a white male was being accused of raping a black female, the case would have been dismissed as the female lying.
