What Is The Theme Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Billy Graham said, “Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death.” Harper Lee depicts this in To Kill a Mockingbird by illustrating racism through Tom Robinson’s unjust trial. The novel is set in the 1930s in a small southern town in Alabama called Maycomb. In the town, a black man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The people of Maycomb are quick to accuse Tom due to his race. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the motif of racism to convey the theme that African Americans were dehumanized and not given equitable treatment during the 1930s in Alabama through Tom running away from the Ewells at the time of the alleged assault, the jury convicting Tom, and talk of Tom’s death being expected of him.

During the trial, Tom Robinson tells Atticus that he ran out of the Ewells’ house when he saw Mr. Bob Ewell. Atticus asks him why he ran and Tom replies, “Mr. Finch, if you was a n***** like me, you’d be scared, too” (195). Tom knows that he will be unjustly accused of committing the sexual assault due to his race. This is because Mayella’s word will be taken over his because the people of Maycomb would believe a white woman’s sworn testimony over that of a black man, even if it was not credible. They will believe the worst from an African American. Considering this, Tom fled the