The novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird," by Harper Lee, takes place during the Great Depression. While the town of Maycomb struggles with this downfall, they have a greater battle to face, discrimination. Lee presents the acts of prejudice and exhibits the tragic consequences that fall upon those involved. One of the main victims of prejudice in the town of Maycomb was Tom Robinson. Tom was a victim of it, not only because he was black but because he was kind to everyone, even racist white people. Firstly, everyone in Maycomb believes the lies that the Ewells are spouting. This is shown through how people in the town do not dig deeper or look for clues to prove Tom to be innocent. Secondly, the trial was truly and tragically unfair, especially with everyone on the jury being extremely racist. When Bob Ewell said, "I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" (231), nobody cared that Bob insulted Tom. All they did was believe him because he apparently was there and he apparently saw what happened. Lastly, Tom was shot 17 times by the jail guards. Tom would have more than likely stopped climbing to his escape after 1 shot, him being shot that many times was major overkill. With it Maycomb Tom Robinson was definitely a victim of racism.
You do not have to be black to have racism against you, that is shown in Arthur "Boo" Radley. You can charge anybody, for anything, at any time. First of all, the people of Maycomb made Boo out to be a boogie man, meaning they would make him out to be a monster to scare their children into doing stuff. They would say to their children, "According to Ms. Stephanie, Boo was sitting on his pants, and resumed his activities," (13). People in the town gossiped and gossiped about him and about what he may want may not have done. At one point of his life he was a troublemaker, he was in a gang. Arthur was arrested one night and instead of sending him to the state industrial school, his father decided to lock him inside his home.
