TKAM #6 Chapters 16-19 Perspective- Tom Robinson

People were comin into town to watch my trial. It was a nice feeling to have people come watch you, but I knew these people were all here for the wrong reason. Most everyone here was prejudiced. They wanted to see me get thrown in jail, not even that. They wanted to see me killed! Well, they all believed the lie. But now I will have the chance to tell them the truth. What a predicament I was in. I trusted Mr. Finch though, and I knew he would fight as hard as possible for me. He was a good man. I could see all of the people that were her e for me though. They were up top, and I knew they were prayin for me.

When the trial started, the first person that was called to the witness stand was Mr. Tate. He was the town sheriff. But, he didn’t know the truth. He only knew what Mr. Ewell and Ms. Mayella Ewell had told him. He described what he was told had happened, and then Mr. Ewell was called to the witness stand. Their stories weren’t really the same though. Mr. Ewell seemed as if he didn’t know what happened. He hesitated after almost every question Atticus had asked him, and a lot of the time he just said that he had agreed with what Mr. Tate had said.

Atticus asked Mr. Ewell a question, and he wanted him to write his name on a piece of paper. The question seemed irrelevant. As Mr. Ewell was writing his name, Atticus noticed that he was left handed. Mayella had been bruised up on the right side of her face, so someone had to of held her down with their right hand and beat her with their left. It couldn’t have been me because of my left arm. My left arm was completely drained of muscle and my hand was shriveled up due to an accident when I was a kid. Mr. Finch was sneaky. He asked his questions very subtlety. Mr. Ewell was not particularly happy about this.

After Mr. Ewell was done testifyin’ his daughter was called up. Mayella Ewell. She was the one I was accused of rapin’. As soon as she got up there she started crying. She said she was scared of Mr. Finch. Well she should be. He was going to prove how all of this was a lie, and I was innocent. When it was Atticus’s turn to ask Mayella questions, you could see her tense up. She almost started crying again. She just wanted the judge to feel sorry for her. She was trying to cause a fraud.

Atticus asked her a lot of questions. After a little bit she started to hesitate. Her story was getting all mixed up. Finally she broke down and really started crying. Then the judge said it was time for a recess.

When everyone came back, it was time for me to be called to the stand. Mr. Finch started off asking easy questions, and he asked how I knew Ms. Mayella. I told him she asked me to help her with some work. Then he got to the point. My story was much different from Mr. Tate’s, Mr. Ewell’s, and Ms. Mayella’s. But it was the truth. I didn’t rape anybody. I would never do that. Then it was Mr. Gilmer’s turn to ask question, and he wasn’t planning on being very nice.