How Did Tom Robinson Fight For Equality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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The award-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird is about the racial tension America experienced in the 30s but with a small dusty town in Alabama as its main focus. Harper Lee, the author of this novel, wrote it in response to the race relations as she tried to make southerners see the error of their ways. As a native of Alabama, Lee knew exactly what she was undertaking writing a novel that criticized the way of life of a particular group of people. But she did it anyway and this resulted in one of the greatest contributions to American literature. However, Maycomb County, the targeted town in the book, did not make progress towards equality for various reasons. The first being that colored people made up the bottom class of society, association …show more content…
Beginning with the lack of evidence that proves Tom Robinson was even at the scene of the crime because there were no medical reports to prove rape. “You [Bob Ewell] ran to Mayella, ran for Mr. Tate. Did you, during all this running, run for a doctor?” Atticus continues, “Did you not think the nature of her injuries warranted medical attention”(243)? But the lack of evidence isn’t taken into consideration because the jury felt Tom Robinson’s skin color automatically makes him guilty. Atticus proves the jury which consists of white men only, have prejudices against black men when he states during his closing speech “you gentlemen [speaking to jury] would go along with them on the assumption- the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women” (273). Atticus during cross-examination spoke to Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell with utter respect and dignity but this reciprocated when it was Mr. Gilmer’s turn to cross-examine Tom Robinson. Mr. Gilmer repeatedly called Tom Robinson ‘boy’ with a tone of voice filled with so much hate that it brought Dill to
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