Tom Robinson In To Kill A Mockingbird

In chapters 17-19 of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the court case, Ewell v. Robinson, examines the accusation of rape by Tom Robinson, an African-American male. According to Tom Robinson, he walked by Mayella Ewell’s house every day and she always asked him to help her. Tom claimed that in the spring Mayell a asked him to chop up the chiffarobe contrary to Mayella and Bob’s testimony. Mayella asked Tom to come inside and help fix a door but he goes in to her house and the door appears to be unbroken. According to Mayella, Tom snuck up behind her, hit, and pushed her down then raped her. However, Tom
claims that Mayella grabbed him by the legs when he was up trying to get a box down from the chiffarobe and jumped down immediately. He also explained that no one was disturbed and that he never touched Mayella. Once Bob saw them in the window Tom ran for his life and Bob allegedly beat Mayella. However, Bob blamed Tom for Mayella’s injuries. Bob called Heck Tate to examine Mayella but no doctor was called in this process. Heck Tate, unknowing of the true facts, arrests Tom immediately. Based on the case and the witness involved, I would feel sympathy for several of the characters.
For example, the character I would feel the most sympathy for is Tom because he has been accused of rape and the evidence isn’t strong enough for anyone to believe it, but the majority of people do because of their racist views. Tom Robison is a well-intentioned and kind person and doesn’t seem to deserve all of the hatred he is given. He has a crippled arm, yet very few people realize that and how it was extremely unlikely for him to have beat Mayella in the first place. During the trial, he is treated like dirt by everyone except for Atticus and is viewed as inferior in the Jim Crow era. Also, he is in trouble for doing kind actions and trying to help someone. The next person I’d feel sympathy for is Mayella Ewell because she has no friends and her family is viewed as less than human by the entire city of Maycomb. She was constantly raped and abused by her father, who forces her into possibly lying on trial. Mayella is also uneducated because she is responsible for chores and taking care of her siblings because her father is never there, too intoxicated to do anything, or beats her. The third person I feel sorry for is Heck Tate because he’s been completely lied to by Bob Ewell and doesn’t have an accurate testimony. He’s using Bob’s and Mayella’s because of his racist views and wants to believe Tom is guilty because if he isn’t, Heck will appear foolish to Maycomb. He
doesn’t bother to look at the hard evidence because of his own reputation and his job puts him in a difficult situation where in order for people to precieve him as a hero, he has to be on Bob’s side. The last person I’d feel little sympathy for is Bob Ewell because he’s extremely poor and uneducated. His whole family is seen as disgusting and inhumane because they have awful living conditions. He’s an alcoholic, most likely because he lost his wife and he has to look after all of his kids. Lastly, he seems excruciatingly pathetic because of his drinking problem and he obviously can’t properly take care of his family. After looking at the case, I would vote on facts because they are the truthful evidence that proves what happened and voting on emotions would make the results of the case biased. I believe that facts and opinions don’t overlap because I could have extremely racist views but