Who Is Mayella Telling The Truth In To Kill A Mockingbird

Racism is a belief or doctrine usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has a right to rule others. In today’s society, there is still an issue of racial discrimination that occurs when people treat others differently because of their skin color or ethnicity. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, racism in the southern states of America is very prominent as the townspeople struggle to overcome the effects of the Great Depression. Through the trial of Tom Robinson and a solid description of how the people in Maycomb view African-Americans, the audience can infer that there is a fine line separating the white people from the colored people in the mid 1930s.

The trial of Tom Robinson, an African-American, is one of the

main examples of racism in To Kill A Mockingbird. Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a low class, white woman. Atticus has been asked by Judge Taylor to defend Tom in court, but even though Atticus accepts he knows fully well that it is highly unlikely for Tom to win the case and be proven innocent. “The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’” (88). Given the fact that the people of Maycomb are highly discriminative against blacks, this quote means that because Tom Robinson is black and Mayella Ewell is white, the people are more likely to side with Mayella Ewell since “all negroes lie” (204). When Mayella is asked to testify, she says, “No, I don’t recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me” (185). Mayella’s testimony is very questionable and suspicious because of her hesitations and unsureness about whether or not Tom hit her.

This proves to the reader that Mayella is not telling the truth because if she is charging Tom for rape, she would not easily forget what happened. As Atticus questions her about why her loud screams did not perk the children’s interest, Mayella stayed silent and is inarticulate. Her silence gives the audience enough information to infer that Mayella either was not screaming as loud as she says she did, or she is not telling the truth. Based on her previous statements, it is most likely to the audience of Maycomb and to the readers that she is lying to save whatever dignity and self-respect that she has left. Throughout Tom’s testimony, Atticus gave many obvious evidences as to why Tom Robinson would not be able to rape Mayella Ewell such as how Tom took “the oath with the only good hand he possesses--his right hand” (204). This phrase lets the reader refer back to when Atticus was cross-examining Mr. Heck Tate as he testifies that Mayella was beaten on the right side of her face which means that the person who beat Mayella would have to be left-handed. However, Tom’s left arm got “caught in the cotton gin when he was a boy… like to bled to death… tore all the muscles loose from his bones--” (186). This quote clearly explains to the reader why his left arm

is useless thus causing the reader to see how obvious the case is and the people of Maycomb knows very well that Tom is innocent except “there’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads--they couldn’t be fair if they tried” (220). The white people of Maycomb do not want to come to terms that a black man is innocent while one of their kind receives the guilty verdict. In the end, what little progression to overcome racism in the jury still leads to Tom being given the guilty verdict and a death sentence because “in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case” (241). People’s prejudices will cloud their reason and fair judgement which will lead to injustice.
The people in Maycomb County discriminate against blacks because the people believe that white people will always have more power than black people. The first incidence of racism by the townspeople was when “the sheriff hadn’t the heart to put [Boo] in jail alongside Negroes” (11). This shows the sheriff’s disdain for African-Americans and since Boo Radley is white, the sheriff did not feel that it was necessary for Boo to be punished and have him living in the same place as people who are of a lower class. The townspeople “go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up” which the audience can infer that because of a Negro’s different appearance, they are considered outcasts who do not fit into Maycomb’s society (88). This is racial discrimination because of how the townspeople separate others that do not look like them. When Atticus accepts the case, Maycomb’s citizens threw nasty comments at him and his children, Jem and Scout. Words such as n-word lover or n-word arise many times throughout the novel along with Mrs. Dubose’s comment, “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for” sets how the people of Maycomb really feel about African-Americans (102). This quote gives the reader insight on how the people of Maycomb are so quick to turn on one of their own. Atticus is a respectable lawyer in Maycomb; however, when he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, his neighbors, especially Mrs. Dubose, verbally disapprove of his choice and compares him to the trash that he helps. Atticus only hopes that through everything, he will be able to ease Jem and Scout past the events of the trial “without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease” (88). This quote means that Atticus hopes his children will be able to see past the color a person’s skin and past all the hatred in order to clearly conclude if a person is guilty or innocent unlike the people of Maycomb who are racist. The use of the n-word has a lot of meaning and history behind it. Back when slavery was dominant in the southern states, the n-word would be used by white people to put down black people. Now when the white folks of Maycomb County use the n-word, it is similar to or a way of insulting African-Americans by using the word that cause so much pain in history.
Though our country has made substantial progress to move on from our history full of racism, there is still a ways to go before a person’s race will not change how people view him or her. I think the lesson that we can take from To Kill A Mockingbird is to not judge a person by the way they look or their skin color until you get to know who they really are as a human being. Similar to the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” one should not assume that everybody in a certain race is good or bad because the whole idea of being able to understand is to accept that there will be people in the world who are different in either their ethnicity, skin color, or overall appearance. At times people will think that being different is bad, but in our society being different is what makes humans a diverse group. The people of Maycomb County are so quick to jump to conclusions and create assumptions about black people based on differences that do not truly define who a person is. Because of this, an innocent man gives up hope and gets killed at the end of the novel. People who are different tend to suffer because of another person’s judgement and if we are able to consider the ways things are in another person’s point of view and experience what it is like to be in their place we would achieve understanding. It is only a matter of not defining others by who they are on the skin.