To Kill a Mockingbird
...ls and not try to help Tom. Scout did not understand this until Miss Maudie pointed out to Scout “that Judge Taylor naming Atticus to defend that boy was no accident” (214). In addition, all of Maycomb knew that “Ewells were white trash” (170) and they knew that every word that Bob or Mayella Ewell spoke was a lie. The citizens of Maycomb knew that Bob Ewell was a liar and he accused a Negro to protect him from getting thrown in jail for child abuse. Bob Ewell was just trying to protect his own dignity by blaming a Negro, Tom Robinson for something that he did to his own child. All in all, Maycomb County wanted to help Tom Robinson, but in the end their efforts were not enough. Although Maycomb wanted to defend Tom Robinson, they also did not want to be the only county in the South known for defending Negroes and being the county that stands out the most for breaking the nature of the law that says that all Negroes are liars. For instance, Maycomb citizens “are the safest folks in the world” (215), which means that they will not do anything out of the ordinary. Anything out of the ordinary would mean that they would not have picture shows or circuses come into town and surely they would not defend a Negro. In order for Maycomb to be safe, they have to go on with their lives as the way they were and not defend any Negroes; they would have to take all white man’s stories to be the truth and all Negro stories to be lies. Furthermore, Maycomb citizens “are rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us” (215). Miss Maudie points out to Jem that there are only a few men in Maycomb that will step out to of the boat and go into territory that could put their lives on the line and that Atticus is one of these people. As a result, for not stepping out of the boat and starting a new begging for trusting Negroes Tom was convicted and punished for something he did not do something a whit man did to his own. If Maycomb were not to convict Tom for raping Mayella, they could start a revolutionary change in the south. For example, many people all over the South came to see Tom Robinson’s case, but most of the people came to see...