Tom Robinson was an outsider in Maycomb because he was
black, which is also the reason that the general population of Maycomb did not really
care for him. The majority of Maycomb's citizens did not appear to feel any real
remorse for members of the black community. This is made very evident in the closing
remarks made by Atticus Finch during the Robinson
trial.
'...To
begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black
and white.'The state has not produced one iota of medical
evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took
place...'She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did
something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man. Not and old
Uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but
it came crashing down on her afterwards...'And so a quiet,
respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to 'feel sorry' for a white
woman has had to put his word against two white people's. I need not remind you of
their appearance and conduct on the stand--you saw them for yourselves. The witnesses
for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented
themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their
testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on
the assumption--the evil assumption--that all Negroes lie, that
all Negroes are basicaly immoral beings, that all
Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption on associates
with minds of their
caliber.'
This speech by
Atticus clearly reveals the feelings and attitudes of Maycomb's citizens toward not only
Tom Robinson, but also all black people. Had Maycomb society not regarded its black
neighbors in such poor light, there would have been no need for Atticus to even address
such truths or to do so with such passion.
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