Tom Robinson's Crimes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Harper Lee contends that people commit crime because of their problems. Lee believes that a lot of people face problems such as stereotyping, racism, etc are making people guilty. In the book, one of the biggest example of this is the Tom Robinson case. He wasn’t guilty at all and Atticus proved it but he became victimized by racism. He was put in trial and even sent to jail for something that he didn’t do. All the proofs supported Tom. But he was a colored man which changed everything for him. When Jem asked his father, why did this happen Atticus explained to him, "Tom Robinson's a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world's going to say 'We think you're guilty, but not very' on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing”(Lee …show more content…
Racism made Tom Robinson look evil even though he was not. Racism cost Tom Robinson his life. The people on the jury, their families or someone was told that colored people are terrible and they shouldn’t even be considered human. All the white folks who believed Tom was guilty were evil because they had been taught, learned that way. They did what was passed down to them. But there were some people/ kids who had no idea what racism even was because they were taught nicely. Jem, Scout, and Dil were taught everyone is equal and we shouldn’t say someone is not equal to us just because of their race, color believes etc. They had never experienced racism before and when they finally did they were shocked. When the case was progressing and when Mr.Gilmer talked to Tom Robinson in an inappropriate way he couldn’t handle it and was taken outside by Scout where he stated, “It was the way he said it made me sick, plain sick”(Lee 266).This shows how innocent and pure-hearted he was and if there was any evil inside of him he wouldn’t have reacted that way. He technically stood up for what was wrong but since he is a kid his opinion didn’t really matter at
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