To Kill a Mockingbird: Society Killed Tom, Not the Shooter Alone

Who Killed Tom Robinson?

Though the prison guard, an individual, shot Tom Robinson dead, it does not

necessarily mean that he alone is responsible for the tragic loss of Tom Robinson. The

society of Maycomb County is conveyed to be a racist community. Many factors prove

this fact, such as the racial slurs that are hissed towards the coloured folks. Coloured

people are treated with hatred and suppressed by the predominantly white society. Due to

the fact that coloured folks are prejudiced against, Tom Robinson and his lawyer, Atticus

Finch “won’t win, [and they] can’t win.” This exhibits that due to his skin colour, Tom

Robinson did not have stand a chance to win the court case, thus displays the height of

the prejudice in Maycomb society. Tom Robinson should not have been sentenced guilty,

and the citizens of Maycomb are well aware of that.

A factor that may have resulted in the loss of Tom Robinson’s case was that the

jury was picked randomly, and the jury happened to be bias against coloured people. A

quote that proves this is when Atticus says to Jem, “If you had been on the jury, son, and

eleven other boys like you, Tom would be a free man.” This quote explains that if the

court had been run by eleven men who were taught not to be prejudice, like Jem, then the

case would have a different outcome. Though Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob Ewell’s

accusations had been clearly fictitious, "Tom Robinson was still falsely convicted. In the

era of To Kill A Mockingbird, a white woman’s word would overrule a black man’s by

far. Tom Robinson was not guilty for raping Mayella Ewell, but for simply being

coloured -which is one of the main reasons that society had already killed Tom Robinson

before he was shot dead by the prison guard.

“..remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing

but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s