How Does Tom Robinson Build Trust In To Kill A Mockingbird

After Tom Robinson was charged with raping 19 year old Mayella Ewell, he was taken to court and Atticus had to defend his case. On page 212 of the novel Tom Robinson states that he ran away from Mayella when she had kissed him because he was scared, Atticus asked him why and he said “ Mr Finch, is you were a nigger like me, you’d be scared, too.“ Tom said this because of the society that they lived in where all “Black” people were not to be trusted. Atticus did his best to prove to the jury that Tom Robinson was not guilty for the crime that he was charged for

The scene where Scout and Dill meet Mr. Raymond out of the courthouse holds a lot more significance than one may think at first. It shows the reader how not to judge a book by it’s cover and the values of trust. How can such themes be discussed in only a few pages? Let me indulge for a moment as I explain as to why.

In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is in trial for the supposed rape of Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson was on his way home when Mayella Ewell asked him to help her with something. Being a kind man, he went into her yard and started to look for some of the plants he usually dug up for her when she asked him for help. He didn’t find any, so he asked her what it was she needed. She told him a box she needed was up in a place she couldn’t reach. He went in the house and grabbed the box, and after he did Mayella told him the door was broken. Tom Robinson proceeded to look at the door, not finding anything wrong with it. He told her and she jumped on him, hugging him and saying she never kissed a black

Tom Robinson is an example of a mockingbird in To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson was a black man in 1930, therefor it was unfair from the start. Tom Robinson was nothing but a kind man, he never harmed anyone. Tom saw Mayella struggling around the house. Her father was a drunk that left her to fend for her and the children. She did her best but once in awhile when Tom was passing by the EWell house Mayella would invite him inside the fence to see if her would help her with little tasks. One day she invited him inside to fix a door. When he got inside to fix the door her found there was nothing wrong with the door. That is when Mayella kissed Tom, however Tom is wrongfully charged with rape.

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Racism is ever present toward blacks and the trial of Tom Robinson, an African American, clearly displays this. Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white woman. The huge detail in this is that it was a white woman. Racial issues are really brought about because of that detail. People during this time would easily take a white man’s word over that of a black man, so nobody would ever trust Tom Robinson, especially since he was a black man being accused of a crime against a white woman. Tom Robinson really can’t do anything to help his case. The only person that can help him is Atticus. While Atticus does not believe that he will win the case, he knows that it is right to do everything he can to help Tom. He knows right from wrong and he will do everything in his power to help people see that, and to help Tom survive this case. Tom Robinson could also be described as a Mockingbird in this story. If proven innocent, he would be

On the other hand, Tom Robinson could also be the symbolic “mockingbird”. For instance, while examining Toms behavior, Scout realizes that, “Tom Robinson 's manners were as good as Atticus 's.” and say’s, “Until my father explained it to me later, I did not understand the subtlety of Tom 's predicament: he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run” (Lee 197) This belief indicates that Tom is a very polite gentleman who is innocent. Being a man of color, he ran that night as self defence, not because he did something wrong. He did not want to hurt Mayella, as the gentleman he is, but in such circumstances he was forced to do so. Therefore, during the trial, he does not claim that mayella is a liar, instead he says, “I say she’s mistaken in her mind”. (Lee 167) He is a gentleman and an innocent man who doesn 't mean any harm. Also, while explaining about Tom’s death, ‘They shot him,’ said Atticus. ‘He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them...”(Lee

Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, Bob Ewell shows countless acts of controlling and intimidating Mayella. Involving Mayella’s life at home, there is reason to believe she is being abused by her father, especially while he is drunk. During a conversation between Mayella and Tom, Tom asks if Bob is good to Mayella, and she replies “He does tollable, ‘cept when-.” (Lee, Chapter 18). While she is finishing her statement, Bob was intimidating Mayella while waiting for her to answer, to express that she may not say anything to defame Bob. As Tom reviews his discussion with Mayella in the trial, he tells the court, “she says she never kissed a grown man before…. She says what her papa do to her don’t count.” (Lee, Chapter 19). In this context, interpreting this statement concludes that Bob has done inappropriate things to Mayella. Previously stated in the second paragraph above, Bob calls Mayella a whore for kissing Tom. Bob is portrayed as a racist person, so Mayella having any interaction with Tom will get her into more

People feel sympathy towards those that are believed to be unlikely to lie, and Mayella took advantage of this. During the trial, Scout realizes that “Tom Robinson was a dead man the moment [Mayella] opened her mouth to scream” (Lee 323), which is mainly because she was given sympathy. When she tells her story about the events that happened between her and Tom Robinson, the audience pities her, and she is described as “[. . .] fragile looking, but when she sat facing us in the witness chair, she became what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor” (Lee 239). They describe her as someone who looks strong and controlled, but also as frail and fragile. Even though her life is not on the line, the people in the courtroom believe her to need more protection because of her fragile appearance. After Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell spit in his face, Atticus responds to his children by saying “if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take” (Lee 293). Even the lawyer that shows the town that she was guilty pities her, even after she denies her lies and lets a young man die. In this situation, race is a contributing role towards this sudden acceptance, because in the society that these characters live, individuals with white skin are often viewed as less likely to commit sin

He would often help Mayella with chores, and when she tried to pay him he would say “No mam’, there ain’t no charge” (Lee255). According to Scout “Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her” (Lee257). On the day he was accused of raping her, he was simply helping her “git [a] box down from the top of the Chiffarobe” (Lee259) when she hugged and kissed him. He tried to let her down easy, then ran because he would “hafta face up to what [he] didn’t do” (Lee265). His former employer even fells the need to defend him and say “that boy’s worked for me eight years an’I ain’t had a speck o’trouble outta him.

Tom Robinson is a mockingbird because he was innocent of the crime that Mayella said he committed. During Tom Robinson's testimony he said, “ …. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more than the rest of em- …” (page 197) This showed us Tom's character , he simply wanted to help her out of the own kindness of his heart. The local journalist reflected on Tom’s death written in his editorial by referring to it as the, “Senseless slaughter of songbirds...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

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions.

The reason the author did introduce the town of Maycomb was to explain how it was. The town Maycomb was little it was on the southern side. It was not that rich. People were racist and they were in the great depression time. It was a small town in Southern Alabama there was no money to spend and buy stuff. Change had not came to Maycomb yet. There were still early survivors of the Civil War. They would tell the people about the good times. Scout did spend all of her youth time in Maycomb. The Great Depression was raging up. Black and White were still separated. The trial of Tom Robinson was a big event for the people of Maycomb. Maycomb County was recently told that they had nothing to be feared for but fear itself. The town people were so

Of all the characters in TKAM, I think the one who needs most understanding is Tom Robinson. Throughout the story, Tom's actions and personality directly influence and are influenced by events, like the attempted murder at the sheriff's house. Regardless of these facts and his inexcusable importance to the book, there is very little we know about Tom as a character. After reading about him, I feel that the two words that best describe Tom are sympathy and honesty. To begin, I would like to talk about Tom's honesty.

To begin with, I am characterizing Tom Robinson’s humble and supportive actions. First of all, Tom helps Mayella Ewell without getting paid. In chapter nineteen Tom Robinson said, “She give me the hatchet and I broke up the chiffarobe” (Lee 255). Tom also said, “No ma’am, there ain’t no charge” (Lee 255). Those quotes are important because they show that Tom is helping Mayella without pay, which shows that Tom is a humble person. He knows that there could be many consequences if you are black male and around a white person at the wrong time. If a black man even looked at a white women, he could be accused of rape. Unfortunately, Tom was helping Mayella at the wrong time, and that is how he got accused of raping her. Next, Tom Robinson is humble

“Even among the poor whites, there were social divisions: at the bottom of the social rung, even below the poorest whites, were those who only two generations before would have been slaves. In To Kill a Mockingbird, this poor white bigotry was personified through Bob Ewell”(Mancini, Candice 9). Tom Robinson was known for being and honest man in the black community. He would go to church often and he was a family man. In contrast, Bob Ewell was the town drunk and was by no means a model citizen. Clearly the better man was Tom but due to his race, many people believed Bob and Mayella Ewell when they said that Tom had raped Mayella. In reality, Mayella kissed Tom, “she was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in [their] society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man … a strong young Negro man”(Lee, Harper 204). At the time Lee was growing up, whites and blacks were still segregated and it was inconceivable that the two races consort.