In contrast to Mayella, Tom Robinson was treated as if he were not worth anything, for example he was being called Boy, big buck, when he was being questioned. When Mr Gilmer asked for Tom’s reason for helping Mayella, Tom admitted he had felt sorry for her. “ ‘.. I felt sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em-‘ ..‘You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’ Mr Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling”. (Page 217/218) No black man should feel sorry for a white person.
Tom Robinson exemplifies how racism prohibits justice and fairness in the town of Maycomb. Tom Robinson is a black man that is not treated fairly because of his race. In the town maycomb no one is ever going to believe a black man over a white man. The people in the town are prepared to accept the word of the ignorant Bob Ewell over a decent black man. How the town perceives Tom has a lot to do with how he is treated.
Although revered for his efforts and courage in the North, the South typically viewed John Brown as lawless murderer and condemned him. At this point, many abolitionists felt the need to abandon their means of peacefulness in their demands to end slavery. Southerners were shocked and scared regarding the matter since he had means of organizing a slave rebellion, even though he was a white man. The raid had caused a great amount of fear for slave revolts and abolition in the South, thus pushing further the issue of
But this did not matter to Atticus; he went against everyone, and what everyone said just to prove that Tom was innocent. We are shown Tom Robinson’s humanity and point of view through Atticus’s actions, while the majority of the white population see Tom as just as inferior with no rights. Atticus was scorned by many of his fellow citizens because of his attitude that a black man should have the same rights as a white man. Atticus’s rejection of authority was felt by everyone in his town. His determination to defend Tom causes his own family grief from others in town.
He was particularly not very fond of Thomas Jefferson, who he thought to be a racist. In his “Appeal in Four Articles” we can detect the tone and seriousness in his voice right away. This is obviously not a topic he takes lightly. He blasts the institution of slavery right away when he says, “But we, (coloured people) and our children are brutes!! and of course are and ought to be slaves to the American people and their children forever“ ( Walker 792).
He was not experienced and did not know better than to decline the invitation. He thought the best in people and was blind to the fact that the men who invited him were racist. It turned out that he and other black young men were deceived and put into
Black men were not men at all, but they were property. Huck struggled with this throughout the book as he felt guilt and condemnation for not returning Jim back to his rightful owner, Widow Douglas. But even in the peculiar relationship, it was confusing as to which would be the father figure, Huck or Jim. Jim definitely filled the role as protector, when he shielded Huck from seeing corpse of his godforsaken Pap. Jim also displayed the image of father that would give up his own life for his boy when stayed with Tom after he got shot.
This quote is important because it showed that Bob had no respect for Atticus, and his embarrassment in court was his main priority in getting him back. "Too proud to fight, you nigger-lovin' bastard. "(272) He is saying that he knows that he was the one that raped his daughter Mayella, and takes out his anger on Atticus, and on behalf of the black community
Charlie was hiding throughout the story because of his cowardly ways. He represents the lack of manhood the blacks had in the past. On that day, just as the old men gathered to gain back their pride, Charlie stood up for himself and gained respect from those in the community. The old black men in the community lacked manhood all in the same way. They all never stood up for themselves until that day.
The great depression and the dust bowl brought a new myth to the 1930’s which was the misconception of self-blame and personal responsibility which evolved from the earlier self-made man myth. “Most Americans were taught to believe that every individual was responsible for his or her own fate, that unemployment and poverty were signs of personal failure” (CD; B, 662). Many men were ashamed and blamed themselves for their loss, some even pretended to still go to work during the day because they were too ashamed to let down their family. (CD; B, 663) Some Americans also blamed the president himself and named their poor crumbling neighborhoods. “Many Americans held the president personally to blame for the crisis and began calling the shantytowns that unemployed people established on the outskirts of cities “Hoovervilles” (B, 676; CD) The 1930’s also show examples of our continuing inequality in America.