Introduction
Your role as the trial jury has been commissioned by the
City Hall to determine whether Tom Robinson (a black man accused of raping a white woman) in the novel To Kill a
Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is really innocent or guilty. Lee
published her first and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1960. Though she wrote
about her own experiences as a child in Monroeville, Alabama, Lee intended for the book to impart the sense of any small
Deep South town and the universal characteristics of people everywhere.
You must take into
account the point-of-views of the following characters:
- Scout Finch (the 5 year-old)
- Jem Finch (her brother, almost a teenager)
- Atticus Finch (the white lawyer defending Tom Robinson)
- Mayella Ewell (the white woman who accuses Tom Robinson)
- Bob Ewell (Mayella’s father)
- Society itself at that
time
You must have your decision in one week’s time. The ultimate decision will be the Judge’s, but you must supply him with very
good reasons for your decision.
