Prejudice, Immorality, and Shame (Ch17-20)

For this section of this book, I choose the aspect of the fact that Mayella accused Tom Robinson of raping her simply because she was too ashamed to admit that she wanted Tom to kiss her. In these racially separated times, Mayella Ewell is simply afraid to admit that she was the person that was going for Tom Robinson and not the other way around. Mayella Ewell scared Tom Robinson, hugged him, and then asked him to kiss her. When they were caught, she was scared and made up the entire story of being raped by him. Atticus, simply doing the right thing, is trying to  defend someone who is innocent. Sadly, this is hard in these racially segregated times. An innocent black man is basically guilty for being black. I think Mayella is totally wrong and a coward for doing what she did. She was selfish and willing to put Tom at risk. I don’t see her nor Bob Ewell as very good people. I think people of this time need to wise up and stop being so ignorant.

Throughout the book we see racism. We see simple things from the Church that Calpurnia took the children too to more intense racism such as the Tom Robinson  case. These people are  followers and don’t form their own opinions of the people. I think Mayella needs to apologize for what she did as it was very drastic. Tom Robinson did nothing wrong expect for being black. He was born black and that is not under his control. This aspect is nothing short of expected. The entire book shows the era of the Great Depression in which prejudice was the norm. I think people need to wise up.