Avery Halstead Mrs. Lawson English 10 19 January 2023 Tom Robinson; Everyone Else is at Fault The people during the 1930s had a barrier between one another, and that barrier was race. One example of what can happen when race is a communication barrier between two sides is the book, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Harper Lee wrote the book based on the period of the Great Depression (1933-1935) in Maycomb, Alabama. The Great Depression had immense repercussions on families. Unfortunately, people were laid off from jobs, specifically those that were nonwhite. All people struggled from poverty, which resulted in very little food and no money for entertainment. However, at the time, African Americans suffered from those at a much higher rate. …show more content…
The community influence is exhibited in the book when Atticus comes home from the trial and shares some details with the kids. Originally, Jem thought that “Tom’s jury sho’ made up its mind in a hurry” (Lee 253). Atticus proves Jem’s thoughts wrong by expressing that juries ordinarily would have made up their mind in a few minutes, but this case took a few hours. Atticus follows up with the reasoning for this prolonged case, “You might like to know that there was one fellow who took considerable wearing down- in the beginning he was rarin’ for an outright acquittal” (Lee 253). A juror in the case thought there was no evidence to consider Tom Robinson guilty. The rest of the jurors believed Tom was guilty, although there was arguably not enough evidence to prove that. The juror thought Tom was innocent but was convinced to change his opinion due to manipulation. His altered perspective of the juror shows that the citizens of Maycomb are why Tom was falsely convicted guilty of rape. However, the community is not the only one at fault for Tom’s conviction because his accuser and her family also contributed to the decision made in the courtroom. Tom Robinson is not the one at fault for his death because Mayella was the one who pursued him first. While in the courtroom, Mr. Finch asks Tom Robinson to go through the events that happened throughout his interaction with Mayella Ewell on August 21st. Tom states, “...why, I was just passin’ by, when she says for me to come there and help her a minute… she says, ‘Naw, I got somethin’ for you to do in the house…’” (Lee 219). Tom continues to describe the interactions between Mayella and himself, and later in his testimony as he proclaims why her actions made him