Charlie Lichauer

Mr. McConnell
English 9
January 27, 2017
Trial Analysis
There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an
immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire."
(Lee 273). This shows how bias Whites can be towards African Americans especially in Alabama
in the 1930s. Atticus proves a point where people should not judge each other by race or gender,
and he describes the roles of each race and gender in Maycomb. A good example of this is the
Tom Robinson case. Maycombs universe of obligation could have affected the jurys decisions
tremendously, and even could have changed the decision completely.
In the Tom Robinson case, Tom was found guilty. He was accused of raping Mayella
Ewell, but Tom says different. He says that Mayella came on him and tried to rape him while
further evidence proved that he didnt do that. The reason that this was important was because
black men were thought of as sexual predators and women were thought of as pure and the ones
that carried on the white race. The jury in the case was also all white men, and no blacks or
women even got a say in the whole thing. The only woman that got a say in the case was
Mayella, and she was the victim of the case. Also, the judge didnt think Tom Robinson was
guilty, and thats why he chose Atticus to defend Tom in court.

I think that the evidence given throughout the story points out that Tom Robinson was
not guilty. Some of the reasons that I believe this is because there was bruises on Mayellas right
eye, meanwhile Toms left arm could not move because of a work accident. It would be very
difficult for Tom to punch Mayella in the right eye. This leads me to believe that Mayella was
really the one that was lying and Tom is not guilty. Instead Bob Ewell beat Mayella and then
blamed it on Tom Robinson so that he would not get in trouble. Also, when Tom ran in trouble
with the law before, it was against another black male and he got in very little trouble. All of the
sudden, he is against a white woman and he is sentenced to death.
Maycombs Universe of Obligation could have affected this decision in many ways. In
Maycombs universe of obligation, it holds the white females towards the center and the black
males towards the outside. In other words, the white females are cared more about than the black
males and therefore it is obvious why Tom Robinson was charged like he was. For example,
when they mentioned the injuries on Mayella in the story. Scout, look! Reverend, hes
crippled. (Lee 248). This shows us that Tom was injured in his left arm and could have not
possibly beaten Mayella like that. Although justice was served, it still does not go with the belief
of democracy.
In conclusion, I think that Maycomb should have given Tom Robinson a chance and
listened to what he had to say. He was the only one that had a different story and he even knew
that he was going to be found guilty. That is why he ran away and got shot. He knew that he
never stood a chance in the court, and he wanted to get away from it all. Also, I think that Tom
Robinson was wrongly convicted and he did not deserve to die. This just goes to show how
racism can affect everyone.