Tom Robinson was accused and convicted of raping Mayella Ewell he was an innocent man, Bob Ewell made up the story of Tom raping Mayella. Tom’s verdict was guilty, people were shocked to hear the outcome, it was unfair to Tom and Atticus, many took advantage
The Tom Robinson case in Maycomb clearly exemplifies the prejudice rolling through the South, as Tom, a black man, is wrongfully accused of the beating and rape of Mayella Ewell a white woman. Tom Robinson is blamed by Bob Ewell who is Mayella’s, racist, cruel, degenerate, abusive father. Tom is defended by the Maycomb’s best lawyer, Atticus Finch, who represents the good in the county. Tom is not able to rape Mayella as his left arm has been crippled since he was twelve as his arm was caught in a cotton gin and the muscles were torn loose making his left arm extremely short. Mayella’s bruises and marks are on her right side, making it nearly impossible for Tom to strike her with a crippled left arm.
He was a black man in a white man’s world, but he didn’t give up. Tom endured the case, knowing that white men would never find him innocent in any crime against a white person in that time period. He expressed his true feelings during the case. He also stood up for himself, as to not let the false case kill his spirit. Tom Robinson, when he was given the chance, did the right thing for himself when he tried to escape from prison.
Tom Robinson is being punished for something he has not commit without any justifications to back up why he is receiving these biased actions against him. Bob Ewell, the actual criminal, gets freed; is roaming the streets with no fear, only, because his skin colour is lighter than Tom Robinson’s. Even though, there is evidence that Bob Ewell is the one who commits the crime. Additionally, Tom Robinson is shot 17 times, as Atticus explains, “‘They shot him,” said Atticus. “He was running.
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson faces situations where he is treated differently only because he is of a different race than mostly everyone else in the town of Maycomb. Tom Robinson is a black man who was accused for raping a white woman and was then put on trial for this accusation which had also lasted for a few hours. Tom was later found guilty, later on he was shot for trying to escape prison and then died. Tom Robinson faces racism when he is accused of a crime and when the people of Maycomb called his death “typical.” Mayella Ewell argues that Tom Robinson had raped her.
(207). When the holes in the Ewell’s testimony were shown to the jury they still came to the conclusion that Tom Robinson was guilty. This is like how the Scottsboro boys were convicted even when the women who had accused them had revealed that they just made it up as an excuse. Tom Robinson was affected by the outcome of the trial because he was imprisoned. This also shows that justice was not the prime factor there, but it was the color of one’s
The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place” (Lee 108). However, even after all that Atticus proved, the jury convicted Tom Robinson, who later died trying to escape prison. The jury came into the trial believing that all black men were not to be trusted, or were criminals. They convicted Tom Robinson before they even met him, because of their
Tom Robinson, was a middle aged disabled African American. He had a family of his own and was well known for generosity and kind works. He was victim of cruelty automatically because of the color of his skin. He was accused of rape to a white young woman, which was not true. Unfortunately with all the obvious proof of proving him innocent, he was still proven guilty.
Although some people in this town believe that he should’ve been sent to jail and shot due to him being black. Regardless, no man or woman of any race or color, should be shot seventeen times in the back for a crime they didn’t even commit. This shouldn’t have ever happened and Tom Robinson did not deserve the kind of treatment that he was getting in court, and all the way to his death. On the day of Tom Robinson’s case, I was there sitting’ in a wooden chair watching on as the case went through.
Tom Robinson’s trial is unfair due to the racism in Maycomb. Society states that the words of a white person should be higher accountable that the words of a black individual. Tom is innocent for raping Mayella Ewell, but the jury convicts him regardless. He dies later when he attempts to escape from the county jail. The reader knows Tom Robinson’s innocence and realizes how an individual that has done nothing wrong can easily be disrupted.
Tom Robinson was wrongly convicted for raping Mayella even though he was an innocent, law abiding man. The reason Tom Robinson was charged guilty was just because he was an African-American. Mr.Underwood makes his analysis of the result of the court case. “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts, Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.”
Tom Robinson’s case truly awoke the town with a sudden interest in the white man and his daughter versus the African-American man in the courtroom. A man with a “crippled” (211) arm not fully able to use both, meaning the “victim,” Mayella would have more of an advantage still denied justice because of his race; An innocent man trying to win his freedom back yet again denied justice. Maycomb, Alabama is so heavily bombarded with such prejudice and had one case that brought more attention and discussion to it. Evidence is revealed that Bob and Mayella were actually in the wrong but because of their race, Tom is accused and not given a full chance to be proven innocent. Harper reveals that the jury was supposed to take “just a few minutes” (239) like most cases but it took more than half an hour to reach a verdict, the spectators assumed that he would be deemed guilty based on his race even before the case started.
Tom Robinson is the black man that was accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Falsely accused by Mayella's father, Bob Ewell, Tom was brought in front of a white, prejudice jury. Tom Robinson’s side of the story was that Mayella asked him to come fix the hinges on the door in the house. Mayella already had all this planned if she had saved enough nickels to send all of the children out for ice cream so she and Tom would be alone. Then she asked Tom to climb up on a chair to get a box, and as he stood there, she grabbed him around the legs.
Even though Tom Robinson was innocent he still was wrongly accused, then apon going to prison Tom Robinson was later shot 17 times. One would think if he was breaking rules 1 bullet would take care of things, but 17 shots is clearly a act on hate and racism. Another quote that helps determine how Lee used Robinson to expose the truth about the justice system is, "Tom Robinson 's a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world 's going to say 'We think you 're guilty, but not very ' on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing" (Lee 219).
Tom Robinson is more than just a literary character and his storyline does not simply stop on the pages of this novel. He symbolizes the plight and hardship every black individual goes through in this country, especially in the eyes of the criminal justice system. Overall, To Kill a Mockingbird, even though written during the 1960s, a critical time for civil rights, is still relevant and pertinent to the status of racial injustices and discrimination in today’s
