"[...] Whether Maycomb knows it or not, we are paying the highest tribute we can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple." Miss Maudie replied in a conversation with Aunt Alexandra.
"Who?" responded Aunt Alexandra.
"The handful of people in this town who say a fair trial is for everyone [...] The handful of people with background, that's who they are."
Page 316 in To Kill a Mockingbird
Tom Robinson was an African American man on trial against a young white lady. Maycomb county is a very racist place; there are very few people that believe in equality. The people that do, knew how biased the trial actually was. On page 295, Atticus says "[...]In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins." This means that no matter how hard Atticus and Tom had tried to win the court case, no matter how little or much evidence was used, Tom Robinson would be guilty of the crime.
Tom Robinson tries to escape where he is sent after the trial. Atticus describes the incident on page 315 by saying "They shot him. He was running during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over." His family, friends, and all of the people of the community had never expected him to die. You cannot expect death, and because you can not expect it, it makes it very difficult to accept.
There is nothing that can prepare you to lose something that will put you to death. No matter how hard that he had tried to expect the outcome of the case, you still hope for the best. Rejection, is one of the hardest things that us humans can face in our lives. No matter how hard that we try to accept that something is missing from our lives, or that we will be taking our last breaths soon, we can't. We cannot face it.
