To Kill a Mockingbird - Newspaper Article

To Kill A Mockingbird Creative Response

Tom Robinson was convicted last month of raping Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell’s eldest child. Bob Ewell accused Tom of raping his daughter and our local sheriff, Heck Tate, had to arrest him even though there was no evidence to prove Tom guilty. Tom was shot last week while escaping from the prison that he should never have been in.
A few weeks ago Bob Ewell called Heck Tate, to his house to accuse Tom Robinson of raping his eldest child, Mayella Ewell. Both Mr Ewell and Mayella said that Tom came into the house, hit her and tried to rape her while Mr Ewell was out in the swamp and her siblings were in town. They claim that when Mr Ewell came back he caught Tom attempting to rape his daughter and fled the property.
Heck Tate was forced to arrest Tom even though he didn’t believe that Tom would have raped Mayella. After Tom was arrested he was held in the courthouse cell overnight and that very night a mob made up of various Maycomb county citizens came to bring their version of justice to him. They planned to lynch Tom Robinson for his supposed crimes, even though they had no evidence to prove he did it except for the word of a white man, and if Jean Louise Finch, a 9 year old girl, hadn’t brought them to their senses they would have had their way. Atticus Finch was sitting in front of the cell as a guard but if his daughter hadn’t been there with him he would surely have been unjustly injured while trying to protect Tom Robinson from the mob.
Tom Robinson was given a trial but it was far from fair, what chance does a black man have with a jury consisting of 12 white men? There was not one scrap of credible evidence to support her claim but a black’s word against a white’s means nothing. Tom Robinson was a good honest man; he wouldn’t hurt a fly without due cause let alone a young woman. Atticus Finch used every tool available to free men to save Tom, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.
Tom was sent to Enfield Prison Farm, 70 miles away from his home, and was cut off from any of his friends and family. He attempted to escape from the prison back to his old life and his family but he was brutally gunned down by prison guards. He had 17 bullet holes scattered across his body, many more than necessary to stop him.
It is a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting or escaping. Tom’s death was a waste just like the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters.