Oppression Post 4- Report on the Trial- Conflicting Testimonies and Racism

The trial in TKAM has many conflicting testimonies from different witnesses. In Mayella's testimony, she said that it was the first time she had ever asked him to come inside the house. She also had many slip-ups in her explanation. In Heck Tate's testimony, he says that all of her bruises were on the right side of her body. When Bob Ewell is on the witness stand, Atticus asks him to write his name. In doing this, everyone realizes that Bob is left handed. This means that he could've beat Mayella up instead of Tom, since the bruises were on her right side. But, we still weren't sure yet, because Tom could be left handed too. When Tom stands up to be on the witness stand, the audience is aghast. Tom is crippled in his left arm. This would mean that he didn't beat Mayella up. When he talks, his information is different than the other three's. He said Mayella often asked him to go inside for different jobs. He also said that Mayella tried to kiss him, but then Bob Ewell saw it through the window and Tom ran away. Tom has a whole different story. When the jury decides if Tom is guilty after all the testimonies, everyone says that he is, even though most of the evidence with hands and conflicting information points to Bob Ewell.

First of all, I do believe that Tom is not guilty. I think that Tom's story was right, and after he ran away Bob Ewell must have beat Mayella up for kissing Tom. When Tom said that he had run away, Mr. Gilmer (the prosecutor) asks why he ran. He said that if Tom was such a big man, why was he afraid of Mayella? Tom responded that he ran because he was black, and he said if you were black, you would understand. This definitely proves oppression to me. He was so afraid of what might happen that he had to run away. Next, the jury all voted that Tom was guilty when Jem was sure that the evidence proved him not guilty. They only did this because Tom was black. Anyone could see that he wasn't guilty, yet the jury said he was just because he was black. I would have no doubt that if the roles were switched, a white man would be found not guilty. This angers me, because this leads to Tom getting in jail for something he didn't do. When Tom tries to escape, the guards don't hesitate to shoot him. They shot him seventeen times. They didn't just mean to stop him from running away with one shot, they meant to kill him. That is completely unnecessary, and I am so sad for Tom's wife- Helen. She had to raise so many kids on her own. And when Link Deas employed her, she would walk a mile to go out of the way of the Ewell household. When Link Deas told him to stop harassing her, she walked on the public road past the Ewell house and found Bob following her. Link Deas finally put it to an end when he threatened Bob. This makes me so mad. The trial is over, you've basically killed this woman's husband with your lying on the witness stand, can you stop bothering her? Bob just has so much prejudice inside of him, and is disrespectful and oppressive to the black people and Atticus.

Society killed Tom. I believe that the way the society was oppressive to black people was the reason that Tom was found guilty, and later killed when he tried to escape from jail. If a white person was in jail, do you think they would shoot?