Tom's Innocence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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. . . . . If the world saw it’s reflection in a broken mirror, it can fill in missing pieces to make it whole, but there will forever be a crack. Scout Finch, an eccentric and credulous little girl lives in a tattered and aged town by the name of Maycomb during the 1930’s. Atticus Finch, Scout’s wise and mostly recluse father, is a lawyer in the town with a good reputation and even better morals. Unfortunately, Maycomb is “cursed” with the harmful ideas of racism and classism. And to make matters worse, the entire town is poverty-stricken. A black man named Tom Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a white woman, and has to fight for his life against the town. Alongside Atticus, they have to open the eyes and hearts of others to prove Tom’s…show more content…
Tom Robinson is completely harmless to others, conveying his direct relation to the symbol of a Mockingbird. Despite Tom’s penury, he still does not accept money for helping Mayella when he tells her, “No ma’am there aint no charge” (Lee 217). Mayella had requested Tom’s aid in a house chore, and he helped her without hesitation. Tom has a disability, so helping her may have been difficult for him, yet he does not ask for payment of any kind. When he called Mayella, “ma’am”, it showed the great respect he has for her. Since there is major race conflict in the novel, it is inferred that the two opposing communities have a strong dislike for each other, resulting in insolent and disrespectful remarks towards one another. Tom breaks this stereotype barrier, and chooses out of the goodness of his heart to still be civil and kind to Mayella, even though he does not have to be. Tom does not let his possible inner hatred towards other white people affect his actions and words, displaying the harmless and kind qualities of a Mockingbird. Though Tom…show more content…
Finch, if you was a nigger like me, you’d be scared too” (Lee 219). Tom says this during the trial, when Atticus is questioning him as to why he ran away from the Ewell house after Mayella kissed him. Tom is scared, because there is so much judgement and discrimination towards black people and back then, they were considered to be a very low class. This frightens him, because this could mean that he receives harsh consequences that he does not deserve. When he says, “nigger like me” it reveals that he is almost accepting his stereotype and the ghastly word, n*****. Though it was a highly used word in the town of Maycomb, Tom expresses his agreeable attitude toward adopting the word as a description of himself. Tom understands through this quotation, that people like Bob Ewell would try to hurt him even if he caused no harm or conflict, relating to the idea of someone “killing a mockingbird”; or hurting a harmless person without a proper reason. Jem becomes angry at the ways people are treating Tom in court and expresses this to Atticus when he says, “‘It aint right Atticus’ said
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