The Trial

In the trial Mayella, who is the daughter of Bob Ewell claimed that Tom Robinson, a black man assaulted and raped her. She was so afraid of her father that she lied. She also was guilty and like a child she needed to blame someone and get rid of the evidence. She broke the "rule" of segregation because she kissed a black man, being a white woman. Tom was put on trial as the scapegoat for a crime he wasn't even close to committing. He showed compassion and kindness to a white woman and he "god forbid" felt "sorry for her" which wasn't okay for him apparently but even when everyone knew of Bob's drinking problem and the strong notion he beats his own children as well as sexually assaulted one they still put tom Robinson away. Why? because no one wants to ever think for a minuet that tom was a kind hearted man all because he was black. And Mayella, has to take the abuse which disgusts me. You are not strong when you force power from someone. We see woman a weaker humans and blame them for what happens. In the book I feel as though the topic of rape was introduced to show how powerless it makes someone feel, and how it shouldn't be taken lightly.

“I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honoured code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She did something every child has done—she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim—of necessity she must put him away from her—he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offence.

“What was the evidence of her offence? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was her daily reminder of what she did. What did she do? She tempted a Negro.

“She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man. Not an old Uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards." (Lee, 203-204)

Tom should have never been convicted and Mayella's father needs to be taken away.