Tom Robinson is a black man accused of raping a white woman in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. He is a father of two young children, and his wife died while giving birth to their second child. Tom is a hard worker who is respected by his community, and he has no criminal record or history of violence or crime.
Tom is a gentle giant, standing at 6 feet tall. He is an honest man who is wrongfully accused of a crime he did not commit. He does not understand why this has happened to him because he has always tried to do right by others and been an upstanding citizen.
Tom is a victim of racism and prejudice—both against black people in general and against himself specifically because of his race and size—which leads to his unfair arrest and imprisonment. His only crime was being born black in 1930s Alabama; Tom had nothing else on his record except being falsely accused by Mayella Ewell because she wanted revenge after Tom rejected her sexual advances towards him (she claims Tom raped her).
Tom Robinson represents the best and worst qualities of humanity: he shows us how much good there can be within someone who has been treated unfairly due to their race or gender.
