Tom Robinson's Innocence

Today, people romantisize the past and glorify the idea of old fashion values, but forget about the severe discrimination and violence committed against African Americans. Because of the discrimination African American communities faced, white people grew up with racist views that portrayed African Americans as less human or less valuable than themselves. Segregation only reinforced these beliefs because white people never gained insight in African American lives. This is especially true in 1930s Alabama due to their outdated southern views and learned bigotry. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays how ignorant, discriminatory thinking causes Maycomb’s residents to blame outcasts instead of taking responsibility for their actions. Blaming

Maycomb refuses to accept Tom Robinson’s innocence and instead uses him as a scapegoat to protect the Ewell’s pride and to justify blaming him for Mayella’s circumstances which preserves Maycomb’s power over the African American community. Maycomb’s inability to believe Tom’s innocence is because his case is a “black man’s word against the Ewells” and “the jury [can’t] possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word” because Maycomb deems ignorant, uneducated white people, like the Ewells, as more respectable, valuable, and trustworthy than black people (88, 108). Tom’s case demonstrates how Maycomb sees African Americans as expendable because of deep-rooted prejudices. Maycomb chooses to condemn a black man to death over damaging Mr. Ewell’s pride. Maycomb attempts to rationalize this verdict with stigmas about black people, falling back on their ingrained prejudices. This permits Maycomb to ignore the ugly truth; Maycomb fails to protect Mayella and the Ewell children from abuse and poverty. By blaming Tom Robinson, Maycomb denies any abuse ever occured and alleviates their own guilt. Atticus tells Tom he has a good chance of winning the trial, but “Tom [is] tired of [a white man’s] chances and [prefers] to

Teen aged Boo becomes aquainted with the wrong crowd and they’re sent to an industrial school where they “[receive] the best secondary education in the state” (10). Boo is the exception because even though “it [is not a] disgrace, Mr. Radley [thinks] it [is]” (10). The boys sent to the industrial school mirror who Boo could have been had he gone to school. Instead, Mr. Radley promises Maycomb that Boo will never be heard from again, reflecting how the Southern way of dealing with problems - denial and dismissal - are less effective than solving the root cause of that issue. Mr. Radley isolates Boo from the outside world, so Boo, at the age of thirty-three, stabs Mr. Radley in the leg with a pair of scissors. Again, Mr. Radley prefers confining Boo to the courthouse basement than accept that “Boo wasn’t crazy, he was high-strung” (11). Mr. Radley saves the family reputation by preventing Boo’s incarceration, but the time Boo spends locked up in his own home makes Boo unhinged. When rumors about Boo’s attack circulate Maycomb, they turn a blind eye to “what [is happening in Boo’s house] behind closed doors” despite knowing Mr. Radley is “the meanest man God blew breath into” by arguing that Boo is crazy, and they choose to ignore the obvious emotional abuse (12, 46). Society