Tom Robinson Testifies — To Kill a Mockingbird

Tom Robinson takes the stand. He is married, has children, and works for Link Deas. For a long time he has passed the Ewell place on his way to work. Mayella would call him over for small chores. He did them because she seemed to have no one else, and because refusing a white woman was dangerous in a different way. He was rarely paid. He did not go into the yard unless she asked. That background already differs from Bob's tale of a sudden beast at the window.

His account of the day is simple and awful. Mayella asked him inside. There was no chiffarobe emergency matching her story. She grabbed him, kissed him, and tried to make him kiss her back. He was frightened for his life and tried to leave without hurting her, using the one good arm. Bob appeared at the window and shouted at Mayella first, with the rage of a man who has seen something he will not name. Tom ran. The balcony hears a white girl reaching and a father exploding at her. The main floor hears a Black man accusing a white household of desire and shame. Link Deas stands up, says Tom has never caused trouble at work, and is thrown out for speaking out of turn. The interruption is legally useless and tells the room a white employer would risk the judge to refuse the state's invented Tom.

Mr Gilmer calls Tom boy, twists every kindness into opportunity, and treats politeness as cunning. The white courtroom enjoys the tone. Then Tom says he pitied Mayella, a white woman who had no help. In Maycomb a Black man is not supposed to look down the ladder and offer compassion. The white section hears a caste crossing more shocking to them than the arm and the bruises. Gilmer pounces on the feeling as arrogance. Dill begins to cry, not at a question but at the sneer, the daily permission to talk to a man as if he were not one. Scout takes him out of the balcony, away from a room that has just received a truthful answer as an insult.