Q#13: The Trial

[Steve Gibbs]

What are your thoughts on the trail? Comment on all aspects, the alleged crime, the reason for Mayella to press charges, the reaction of Bob Ewell, and the final verdict. Give your personal opinions of all that transpired surrounding the trail of Tom Robinson.

[barron1]

I think that there is no hope for Tom, he is a dead man from all of the racial issues going on down in the south

[davidk]

yeah tom is pretty much screwed

[traviszucca]

Tom has absolutely no Chance in the trial because there is mainly white people and that he is accused by white people.

[rundel]

Yep, unless you can change the way the town thinks, he doesn't really have much of a chance. But if Atticus is somehow able to convince them to abandon their racist beliefs, which would be pretty hard to do...

[mariea]

Tom has no chance. if he was white yes, but since he is black the town hates him. He has no chance, but I think if Atticus really convinces people to believe Tom is a good person. Then he has a chance, that is a 1 out of 100 percent chance though.

[lee]

ya, the juries are prejudiced and dont care what tom or atticus claims or says, even if it is a fact. I dont think that Atticus will beable to change everyone's belifs. The town seems to be mostly on atticus's side but the juries seem not to care.

what i found to be interesting was that in Bob Ewell's description, he said that he knew that it was tom robinson and he saw just about everything that happenedwhile standing at the window. Later, in Mayella's description, she said that her father burst into the room after Tom had already sprinted out and he started hollering, "who done it, who done it?"--in exact spelling and punctuation on the bottom of page 180 and the top of page 181.

this proves that #1: the author did not pay attention to the story and how she wrote it, or #2: that it was a flaw in the Ewell's story and none of the juries paid attention.

[readc]

I feel so sorry for tom. He's totally screwed. He has no fair trial, a white girl claims something totally false, and the whole town is against him. This poor dude. And the worst part is, in some parts of the country it is still te same as it was then.

[mariea]

I agree with Christine, if Tom wasn't black then he could've had a chance.

[tusting]

i havent yet reached the part with the veridict, but i think that the whole trial is pointless in a way. i think that we (the readers) know that tom isnt guilty, and for Mayella to press false charges is just a waste of time. i really hope that tom gets out free of charge, and the edwells instead are evicted, for they are just scum while tom is really a good, honest man, trying to deal with the racial issues.

[tusting]

i dont think that there is absolutely no hope for tom, as some are saying. but i think that his chances are very slim of getting out free of charge, as the whole jury is white. i do agree that if tom wasnt black, the trial would have a much different outcome. i feel sorry for tom because the people during this time period where so discriminating, when he is really a good man, and they judge him on the color of his skin.

[tusting]

i feel that the whole trial was unfair. for an honest, young man to be charged with something he did not do, whether he be white or black, is so wrong. for one, he did nothing wrong, and two, he had a family to take care of. the whole thing is just sickening.

[johnnyn11]

I think that the way the trial is going is unfair. It is pretty much impossible for Tom to win unless somebody can change everything the town believes and stands for. There are so many racial issues in the town that there is no way a black person is going to come out on top over a white4 person even if he is actually innocent.

[elliottgrossman]

I believe that he is pretty much hope less. He was accused by a white women in the old prejudice south of a crime. All the evidense points to him being innocent but yet he's guilty. Everyone knows the real truth.

[isabeauc]

This trial makes me soooo mad! I hate it. And unfortunately, it's completely predictable. White woman accuses black man of raping her.... of course they're going to believe the white woman! I think Atticus made a really good point when he said Mayella's reason to press charges. That she was caught making a move on a black man and the only way out, without shaming her family even more, was to get rid of that reminder, of that temptation. I think it's pretty easy to see how racist Bob Ewell was. If he called his own daughter those things for kissing a black man, it's pretty clear he's a total racist. And of course, as if all this wasn't bad enough, the final verdict of guilty was ridiculous! There was no evidence that could ever make it possible to convict Tom of the supposed crime! And just because this is in the south and because racial issues were dominant, he was found guilty of something he didn't do. I hate racism.