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Chapter 18
“Reverend Sykes leaned across me and whispered to Jem. ‘He got it caught in a cotton gin, caught it in Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s cotton gin when he was a boy… like to bled to death… tore all the muscles loose from his bones—’”
The revelation in Chapter 18 that Tom Robinson is unable to use his left hand, particularly after confirming that Mayella was likely beaten by someone using their left hand and that her father Bob Ewell is left-handed, makes it clear Tom is innocent.
Chapter 19
“Until my father explained it to me later, I did not understand the subtlety of Tom’s predicament: he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run—a sure sign of guilt.”
In Chapter 19, Scout as an adult reflects on her lack of comprehension of racial prejudice as a child. She does not immediately understand Tom’s total and complete lack of options once Mayella kissed him. As a Black man, he couldn’t defend himself against her advances, nor could he run without making it look as if he were the aggressor in their interaction. No matter what he did, despite his innocence, Tom was going to wind up in this courtroom. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: Scout.
“‘Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ’em—’ ‘ You felt sorry for her , you felt sorry for her?’ Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling.”
In Chapter 19, the intensity of Gilmer’s reaction to Tom’s admission that he felt pity for Mayella—by all accounts a pitiable figure—illustrates the extent of his racism. Like many people in Maycomb, Gilmer finds it bewildering and offensive to think that Tom, a Black man, could ever feel sorry for a white woman.
