Overview On The Trial of Tom Robinson

At the trial, we get two versions of Tom Robison's relationship with Mayella, and they offer two very different stories: Mayella and her father tell the story that everyone expects to hear, about the Tom that is the town's nightmare. Tom tells the story that no one wants to hear, about the Tom that is himself.

Tom presents himself as a good guy who was just trying to help out a fellow human being in need. The only feelings he has for Mayella are compassion and sarrow, but it seems even those aren't acceptable either.

Mr. Gilmer "You're a mighty good fellow, it seems—did all this for not one penny?"

Tom Robison "Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em-"

Mr. Gilmer "You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?" Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling.

The witness realized his mistake and shifted uncomfortably in the chair. But the damage was done. Below us, nobody liked Tom Robinson's answer. Mr. Gilmer paused a long time to let it sink in.

Tom feels sorry for Mayella as one human being for another, but Mr. Gilmer and others can only see a black man feeling sorry for a white woman, suggesting the uncomfortable for them idea that white skin doesn't make a person automatically better off than anyone whose skin is black. In his testimony, Tom presents himself as someone caught in an impossible situation: Mayella's behavior, as Atticus says, breaks the code of acceptable black white relations, and so there's no right way for Tom to respond.


"Mr. Finch, I tried. I tried to 'thout bein' ugly to her. I didn't wanta be ugly, I didn't wanta push her or nothin'."

Until my father explained it to me later, I did not understand the subtlety of Tom's predicament: he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run a sure sign of guilt.

Tom does the best he can under the circumstances, but even his best isn't good enough. As a black man living in a white world, he's doomed from the start.
Which story is the jury going to believe the comfortable one about a black man raping a white woman, or a disturbing one about a black man pitying a white woman?