Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Tom was shown as one of the biggest challenges that Maycomb had to face. If it wasn’t by his trial it was buy the things that happened because of the trial. Tom Robinson was a modest man. He never did anything bad to anyone, was a hard worker and a respectful as well. During the trial his past never matter, his morals never mattered, neither did his work ethic, the only thing that mattered was the color of his skin. The color of his skin affected everything that he did in this narrow minded Maycomb society. Although he wasn’t guilty this mattered, all that mattered was that he was black. In the end this was why he was convicted. This man because of his colored was tried and found guilty of the rape of a 19 year old girl. “Mr. Gilmer smiled grimly at the jury. “You’re a mighty good fellow…the damage was done.(Lee,pg96)”. The reader would have found that this was an unfair comment and also that Mr. Gilmer wasn’t respecting poor Tom. Mr. Guilmer also used words like boy in another was of disrespectfulness. This made Tom more like a mocking bird because he was accused unfairly.


Finally Atticus, Atticus is a man of straight morals and never let’s anything get between that. He is a man who knows where his heart is at and how things are done. He knows respect, equal treating and more. This is why Atticus chose Tom Robison’s case; this is why he seemed to understand Boo more than the others did. Although Atticus was an older character this made him wiser, maybe he wouldn’t through a football that far anymore and he couldn’t do anything without his glasses, this didn’t matter. His view on everything made him an even better character to choose as a looking glass into the theme. Atticus was the bridge between Harper Lee and the characters Boo and Tom. Tom and Boo had never done anything wrong with their lives, forcing them to fear and recoil from the world. Atticus knew this, and expressed to the reader indirectly that this was his purpose to taking Tom’s case. The reader would have found that how Atticus explains mocking birds relates to Tom and Boo because, they like mocking birds, are innocent.