To Kill A Mockingbird Tom's Compassion Analysis
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In Maycomb, Alabama, during the mid- 1930s, it was considered socially unacceptable for an African-American man to show sympathy or compassion for a person of a higher class, as it implies that Tom regards himself in some sense superior to Mayella. However, the idea that a strong black man might be moved to help a weaker white woman who had more work than she could handle was presumably not objectionable in itself, or at least not seriously so; the reason it was a big deal was the implied offense against general white supremacy, in addition to an offense against the family.
Furthermore, Tom's compassion for Mayella, when examined more closely, also implies a judgement towards the Ewell family when he states that she "seemed to try more'n