Examples Of Tom Robinson's Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird

Published in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is seen as a book embedded into the American public school education system with good reasons. To Kill a Mockingbird symbolizes innocence, classism, and racism. We look through all of these statements from an 8 year old girl nicknamed Scout as she grows up during the Great Deppression, When Scout was around 7 years old, a trial shook the little town of Maycomb when a 19 year old girl accused a black man named Tom Robinson of raping her. Being set in the 1930’s when segregation was a prominent factor in America, With little evidence and witnesses Tom Robinson was still found guilty and was sentenced to death by electrocution.

A couple of townsfolk were talking about Atticus taking the trial in front of Jem and Scout. One told the others that Atticus had been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, but another doesn’t care that Atticus didn’t have a choice, with his mindset being that “Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it” (Lee 163). Therefore, Atticus’s integrity was challenged. It’d been much easier if he just refused to defend Tom Robinson, or not give it his all.

Atticus says this so that some people may form a new opinion if Tom is guilty or not guilty. After Atticus’s closing argument prior to the verdict, Jem was very confident based upon the evidence presented that Tom would be not guilty, after the trial Jem was very upset and crying about the harsh reality of the case case, while he is talking to Atticus about this he says, “It ain’t right, Atticus”(Lee 242). Jem is finally maturing and realizing the harsh reality of Maycomb and the racism and prejudice in people's minds throughout their society. Jem learns that just because of the way you were born you are not given the same opportunities that others have just because of one factor, the color of your skin, not the way you act, or your reputation, but the color of your skin, something so little, but has such a massive impact on everyday life.

When the guilty verdict was returned, the severe injustice destroyed his childhood naivety. Obviously, the adversity in this scene is the extreme racial prejudice against Tom. Jem’s individual identity is shaped from this whole trial because of the unfairness of the racial prejudice of the jury in court, as it leaves him disillusioned and his childhood innocence lost. His faith in the Alabama justice system is diminished because he realises it’s very flawed. “It was Jem’s turn to cry” (p.284) “It ain’t Atticus.

Tom believed that he deserved to be free because and he didn’t deserve to be treated with such indecency. If he had gotten away and they captured him again, he would have gotten worse punishment because him escaping meant that he was guilty, in the white man's eye. Tom was a scapegoat because he was blamed for a crime that he didn’t commit which was beating and raping Mayella Ewell. It was actually Mayella’s father, Bob, that beat her up after he caught her trying to get intimate with Tom. Atticus is not only standing up for what he believes in when he takes Tom Robinson’s case, but he is also standing up for his family.

Furthermore, Tom Robinson is mistreated due to his skin color, as a result, he is falsely accused of raping a white girl. No one in town is willing to help him in any way because of the racist mentality of the town, except Atticus. As a lawyer, Atticus supports Tom Robinson and states an important statement that describes the racist minds of the residents of Maycomb, “The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is”(Lee 271).

This is the first time that Jem being disobedient towards Atticus’s demands is shown and not covered up when a mob of people show up to the jail to lynch Tom Robinson and Jem, Scout and Dill approaches the situation and refuses to leave defying Atticus’s order I believe is a shock and Jem making a statement that he is no longer “innocent” because before he had always obeyed Atticus or attempted to please him. Jem by this point had developed his own mind and opinions on what he thought to be right or wrong as it states in the text,” I was getting tired of that, but felt Jem had his own reasons for doing as he did.” Throughout the trial of the Tom Robinson cases there were several points at which Jem was angered by the blatant disrespect shown to Atticus and Tom Robinson and the every one especially Robert Ewell acted like Tom Robinson was a living person and was just an

In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life." (Lee, 220). This book is based on the 1930’s In Alabama one of the most prevalent racist states in the U.S, and this quote really puts that in perspective, cause even when a man’s life is on the line specifically a black man people, people would rather have the innocent black man put to death instead of the guilty white man which is truly sickening.

Mr. Robinson faces racism within the court and in town. Tom Robinson was fated to death even when he had lots of evidence proving his innocence. On page 323 it states, “ Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” This shows everyone already made up their mind about Tom without listening to the evidence and Tom never even had a chance of surviving. Also, on page 323 the text says, “but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.”

After hours of waiting, the jury came back in. Scout explains how “A jury never looks at the defendant if it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson… Judge Taylor was polling the jury; ‘ Guilty...Guilty...Guilty’”(211) When Scout and Jem hear the verdict, they are distraught. As they were walking home, “It was Jem’s turn to cry.. ‘It’s not right, Atticus’”(212)

A critical event in the book is when Atticus accepts to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell; however, he is disfavored against by the town due to his race. In the book, Atticus says, “...The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells’. The evidence boils down to you did--I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’...” (Lee 117).

To illustrate, “Tom Robinson is a colored man, Jem. No jury in the world is going to say, ’We think you are guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that.” (Lee, 251). This quote shows how little faith Atticus had in Tom’s freedom. He knew that he would not win Tom’s trial, no matter how hard he tried, because no jury in 1930s Alabama would take the word of a black man over that of a white man, no matter how much evidence there was to prove the black man’s innocence.

In chapter 21, Jem, Dill, and Scout go to the courthouse to watch the trial. They watch the whole trial from the colored section. While jury was being polled, Scout notices something about Jem, “Judge Taylor was polling the jury: 'Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty...' I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each "guilty" was a separate stab between them,” (240). This shows Jems loss of innocence because he knew that Tom wasn’t guilty, he understood that yes he would probably be convicted.

Killing a mockingbird is a sin in many cultures because of the animal’s innocent nature; in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird she immaculately illustrates this. To Kill a Mockingbird is about the Finch family, which consists of: Scout (Jean), Atticus, Calpurnia, and Aunt Alexandra. They reside in the modest town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. The father of the family, Atticus, is defending a colored person, Tom Robinson, in a court case regarding rape.

After Atticus loses his trial, Jem notices that the Maycomb County justice system is broken and it needs help, “Then it all goes back to the jury, then. We oughta do away with juries. ”(294) This shows that Jem now understands that people are racist in everything and racism needs to be fought. On top of realizing that the justice system is in shambles, Jem realized that Tom Robinson’s case was very good at showing that.