Personal Response
I empathised with Mayella and Tom Robinson the most. Mayella was very pitiful as she did not have any friends. Even though she did not receive much education, she was very filial to her father and did not want anyone to hurt him. She was kind by heart but she seemed to be hiding something when she was interrogated by Atticus, possibly because she wanted to protect her father. I also empathised with Tom Robinson because his judgement was unfair because the jury was prejudiced against him due to his race. He was put to death for a crime which he did not commit, thus I felt sorry for him. I empathised Mr Ewell the least. He seemed to be unconcerned of her daughter's well being, instead he was more concerned with convicting Tom Robinson. Even though it was his daughter who had been harmed, he was not at all sorry for his daughter. Atticus pointed out that he could be the one who beat up Mayella, which many in the courtroom might agree. This shows that he did not love his children at all, thus I empathised him the least in the court hearing.
Analysing Literature – Recall and Interpret
Atticus faced a crowd of men outside the county jail who wanted to harm Tom Robinson before the court hearing. However, Atticus refused to let them do so and they were going to get their way through even if Atticus was trying to stop them. Scout saved her father from the situation by switching their attention to Mr Cunningham’s entailments, where Atticus had once helped in. By stating the entailments were bad; Mr Cunningham became uncomfortable and decided to retreat from the jail. Therefore, she helped her father escape from the tense situation.
By ensuring that Mayella’s eye injury was on the right eye, it showed that the criminal who beat her up was a left handed. Atticus made use of this point to voice out the possibility of Mr Cunningham beating up Mayella. Mayella was also hesitant when Atticus questioned her whether Tom had beaten her up. If it was not Tom Robinson who had beaten Mayella up, he could be innocent for the whole incident.
Atticus pointed out that Mayella’s motives for accusing Tom Robinson was that she committed a sin which the society did not accept, which was to kiss a black man. She could not admit that she liked Tom Robinson because the Negros was discriminated against by the Whites. Therefore, she had to make it seem like Tom had tried to take advantage of her, instead of her making advances to him. Atticus was afraid that the jury would make the assumption that all Negro men were evil, untruthful, and immoral and could not be trusted around women.
Analysing Literature – Evaluate and Connect
The author created a very poor family background for Mayella to create sympathy for the character. Mayella did not receive and did not have any friends even though she was nineteen. She was the oldest of the family and had to help out in the house when her father was out to work. However, her father would spend what he earned on beer and would beat Mayella when he was drunk. By creating such an environment for Mayella, it makes the readers to sympathise her.
If a jury today is presented with the same evidence, I think that Tom Robinson will not have been found guilty. The jury in the story was living in a society where they were prejudiced against the Negros, which affected their judgement of the case. However, in current society, the discrimination is not that severe and the jury are well selected to judge fairly in the court. Tom Robinson’s case could result in Tom being not guilty, if not for the society at that time. Therefore, I feel that Tom Robinson will be charged not guilty of the case in current days.