Making a Personal Response

In chapters 17-22 in "To Kill a Mockingbird", the thing that struck me the most was the prejudice. Tom Robinson was accused and convicted of raping Mayella Ewell, but Atticus clearly proved Tom Robinson to be innocent. Atticus in his last statement proves to the jury that there is no evidence pointing to Tom Robinson and the only thing that the court had against Tom were the testimonies that were given by Heck Tate, Mr. Ewell, and Mayella Ewell. Atticus gave the trial his best effort to win the case for Tom, but he didn't win and it just proved to everyone that Maycomb is prejudice and made them out to be a bunch of idiots. If one person in Maycomb thinks a black man or woman is guilty of a crime then everyone else in the town thinks they are too.

The main reason why Tom couldn't have been guilty of raping and beating Mayella is when Tom was a boy all of his muscles in his arm were torn out from a cotton gin and Atticus tried to make Tom catch a glass with his left hand, but his arm is useless. When you punch you throw across your body not straight and if Tom is right handed then obviously he couldn't have beat Mayella since the left side of her face was beaten up. Prejudice completely changes a person and everyone is prone to it. Even as children you are prone to it and being prejudice can blind a person with how bad a disease it is.