At one stage in the book Scouts innocence saves Atticus’s and Tom Robinson’s Life’s. Jem, Scout and Dill all sneak out to surprise Atticus, but when they arrive at the jail cell where Atticus is minding Tom, they get their own surprise. They come just in time to see a mob of farmers arrive trying to get into Tom’s cell for a reason not known just yet. Scout, Jem and Dill race over to Atticus’s side. All this did was fill Atticus with fear for them. Atticus told Jem to repeatedly take Scout and Dill home. A burly man said, quote, “I’ll send him home”(pp. 167), and grabbed Jem by the collar. That was when Scout figured out this was not meant to be a pleasant visit. Scout sought the crowed for a familiar face, finally she found one. “ Hey, Mr. Cunningham”(p.169), he pretended not to hear her. Scout tried to make conversation with him, talking about how she is a friend with his son Walter, also asking him to say hey to Walter. Finally he cracked, he bent down, put his hands on Scout's shoulders and said, “I’ll tell him you said hey, little lady”(p.170). Scouts innocence had worked, Mr. Cunningham waved his hand, “lets clear out”, “lets get going boys”(p.170). Scouts innocence was almost destroyed, but she came much closer to being destroyed by Mr. Ewell on her way back from the pageant with Jem. Late at night when they were walking home Mr. Ewell jumped out of the bushes and tried to kill them. Lucky for Jem and Scout Boo Radley was out that night and stopped Mr. Ewell from killing them. Mr. Ewell was found dead and it was determined that his misfortune was an accident, that he had fallen onto his own knife therefore killing himself. Scout came so close to dying, and if she had of died her innocence would have been destroyed.
Tom Robinson was a kind innocent man who had a loving family. Everyday when he walked to and from work he would have to walk past the Ewell’s house, Mayella Ewell (white girl around 15-18yrs old) would always have something for him to do. Tom would politely do the tasks free of charge. One day a series of events happened and Tom was accused of rape. A court case was organized for Tom to defend the accusation. The court case showed Tom was innocent through the points Atticus proved to the court. Firstly Atticus explained Toms Disability. He had no movement in one arm concluding that there was no such way of Tom being able to strangle Mayella when the so called rape occurred. Tom retold to the jury every event that happened on November 21st of the year of the incident, “I was goin’ home as usual that evenin’, an’ when I passed the Ewell place Miss Mayella were on the porch, like she said she were. It seemed real quiet like, an’ I was just passin’ by, when she says for me to come there and help her a minute. I was wonderin’ why it was so quiet like, an’ it come to me that there weren’t a chile on the place, not a one of’ em, and I said Miss Mayella, where the chillun?’ ‘an’ she says she was laughin’, sort of-she says they all gone to town to get ice creams. She says: “took me a slap year to save seb’n nickels, but I done it they all gone to town.” I said somethin’ like, why Miss Mayella, that’s right smart o’ you to treat ‘em. Well I said I best be goin’ I couldn’t do nothin’ for her, an’ she says oh yes I could, an’ I ask her what, and she says to just step on that chair yonder an’ get that box down from the top of the chiffarobe.’ So I done what she told me, an’ I was just reachin’ when the next thing I knows she-she’d grabbed me round the legs. She scared me so bad I hoped down. I got down off a that chair an’ turned around an’ she sorta jumped on me. ’She hugged me. She reached up and kissed me on the side of th’ face. She said she aint kissed a grown man before an’s she might as well kiss a nigger”(pp.212-215). Mayella wouldn’t let him leave he asked her to many times, he didn’t want to hurt Mayella but he had to push her out of the door way. Meanwhile Mr. Ewell heard what was happening and yelled, “you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya”. Tom said he ran so fast he didn’t know what happened next. Tom continued to prove his innocence in the case, but everyone knew a black man would never win against a white man. Tom Robinson’s innocence was destroyed when he was shot in the back supposedly trying to run away from being taken to jail.
In conclusion, ‘it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’ because they don’t do any wrong. Scout has been represented as a mockingbird so if you were to kill Scout you would be committing a sin. And whoever killed Tom has sinned, for Tom was a proven mockingbird, someone who never did anything but please others.
