John VanZant1

John VanZant

Mrs. Field

LNG322

3/28/11

Eradicate Racism!!!!!

Stretching back thousands of years, and up to today, there has been racism, in other

words a race who believe themselves superior to another race. The story To Kill a Mockingbird

is a prime example of white and black crime. Mayella Ewell accuses Tom Robinson of raping

her. Whereas actually what happened was Mayella tried to seduce Tom, failed, got caught by

Bob Ewell her father, and together they tried to frame Tom for rape so they could hide the shame

of one of the Ewell family have sexually relations with a “negro”. Not that it would matter they

were already the lowest of the low in Maycomb County just barely above the blacks. In the late

1800’s and early 1900’s racism was horrible. The whites treated the blacks like dirt. In the one

place you would think they would be treated equally and fairly, court, they weren’t and in To

Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson was mistrialed because he was black. There was obvious

physical evidence that pointed against him, and the jury was prejudice.

In this black and white crime case Mayella Ewell is the white, she is the trash that thinks,

just because she’s white, she can send Tom to jail for accusing him of rape. Mayella is a girl with

no friends, she’s dirt poor. It took her almost a year to send seven children to go get some ice

cream. She has an abusive father who beats her and possibly has sexually assaulted her, he stays

never endingly drunk. All she wanted was someone to love, physically, so she chose Tom. He

was nice always helping her with her daily chores as he walks to work every morning and she
 John VanZant2

just had to have him. But her father caught them and in actuality he beat her and sued Tom for

the blows he dealt her and possible sexual abuse. They did this because they knew they could

win because of those days societies prejudice views, they knew Tom would be dead as soon as

Mayella cried rape. Racism held a great part in this case because Tom was black and the

supposed rape victim was white. The prejudice views were so strong that the jury seemed to even

ignore the physical evidence that points away from Tom being the rapist and someone else

dealing the blows.

In the evidence there was clear tangent proof that Tom was not the true culprit. Mayella

was described as being beat up on the right side of her face and having bruises all around her

neck. Tom Robinson could not have ever done this since he only has one good arm his right arm

his left arm, the one that would be needed to beat Mayella on her right side, was caught in a

cotton gin when he was a child and it tore all the tendons and ripped apart all the muscle so badly

that the arm would never work again. It also says that she has finger shaped bruises all around

her neck. What one armed man could do that with one hand he would need two? Again it was

said that Mayella was beaten on her right side guess who’s left handed? Her father Bob Ewell

every bruise on her body points to him as the actual culprit of the abuse. His drunkenness most

likely sent him into a rage where he beat her. Society declared Tom guilty no matter the evidence

as soon as Mayella cried rape because of the extreme prejudice beliefs of the people back then.

The jury for Tom Robinson was white and all go along with that societies prejudice

beliefs.
John VanZant3