At the trial of Tom Robinson, he is shown to be a man neither physically or mentally capable of committing such a crime. He is fearful and polite. I believe this is shown in Tom because Harper Lee wants to show the differences shown in the attitudes of a black and a white person in this situation. The black person seems to be fearful showing how he is alone, fearing the white people, thinking that he was convicted as soon as he walked into the court room and sat down in front of the all white jury. He is aware of the chances he has of ending up innocent and has nowhere to turn, not even to the police or a court.
“No suh, scared I’d hafta face up to what I didn’t do’
‘Are you being impudent to me, boy’?
‘No suh, I didn’t go to be” This is a section where Tom is being questioned by Mr Gilmer, the opposing lawyer and shows how he avoids any confrontation where he may be thought of as rude or in any bad way by the white people by remaining polite after he is shown non of the same back when being addresses as ‘boy’ by Mr Gilmer. Tom tries to show no dissrespect to Mayella, the white woman, as he is asked if he thought she was lying, he replied by saying she was mislead in some way which is completely different to what Bob Ewell said when he openly blamed Tom for rapping his daughter whenever he had the chance. When he was cross-examined, he was very informal and not at all polite to his prosecutor unlike Tom.
Atticus, the man who is supporting Tom, is shown to be a very moral man and has not had his mind polluted with the prejudice and racism that lies all around him. He wants to stands up for what he believes in, enough so that he would be willing to face many people despising him and greatly lowering their opinions of him. He is willing to sacrifice his reputation for his beliefs. He himself seems to show a little of the same attitude Tom shows those against him when he tries to avoid being accused of mocking Mayella when he was cross-examining her. He feels as if he is slightly treated the same as Tom and feels he must tread carefully like Tom. Mr Gilmer and Mr Finch’s cross-examination differ greatly in their attitude towards those they were questioning.
Although the evidence for Tom’s guilt was very limited and the evidence against Bob was quite significant, Tom was still guilty, as chosen by the all white jury. Harper Lee shows that even though the Jury must have been aware of Tom’s innocence, they still convicted him probably for fear of the consequences that will arise if they didn’t, having to deal with the people of Maycomb’s attitudes towards them.
The conviction of Tom by the Jury is crucial in showing how those white people in the town of Maycomb at this time, fear provails over justice and truth. Very few people sided with Tom or even showed any sympathy for him when the vast majority of them had known of the poor evidence against Tom and probably thought that he was innocent. But, again, the fear within the white people caused them to convict the wrong person. That and the racism that would obviously go against Tom but both him and Bob are alomost socialy equal and are shown the same low amount of respect, which may have helped Tom in his court case but it wasn’t enough to hide the fact that Bob is white, and Tom is black.