Is Maycomb a good place to live in?
Character chosen -- Tom Robinson
Are you asking me if Maycomb is a good place to live in? Well, the answer is pretty obvious, isn't it? If you are thinking that Maycomb is a good place to live in, there really must be something wrong with you! Maycomb, to some people, might be a peaceful and small town which is enjoyable, but to me, well, it is in fact a peaceful town, but certainly not enjoyable! In this state, it is impossible for the citizens to have equal rights! Just take a look at me, a perfect example, being accused of having raped a woman, Mayella Ewell, just because I am black, just because I am of a different skin colour which has been discriminated against all this while. We blacks have no right to speak. We have no right to justify ourselves. We have no right to decide our fate. Finally, we suffer and get discriminated by the whites. We are not even given the chance to fight for our rights against the whites, supposedly of a higher class. What we can do though, is to suffer and just hope for a better tomorrow, which will never come.
Look at my recent case regarding the raping of Mayella Ewell. I am a handicapped person. I have a withered arm. Do you think it is even possible that I am able to rape a able-bodied girl like Mayella? This is nothing but a big fat joke! However, the jury believed Mayella's account that I actually grabbed and slapped her at the same time! How ironical is this? No righteousness and justice was served. Just because I am a black, they gave me such a sentence, a sentence to death, even when I had not done anything and could not have raped a person. How could they have such discrimination against we blacks? Aren't we just like other whites? Aren't we human beings to them?
Despite all this, I must thank a person who gave me his full support, who stood up for me, who stood for what is morally right. This person is Atticus Finch. Although he is a white, he withstood pressure from others and stood up for me, fighting for me. This display of courage is so remarkable and I am really grateful for this. Skin colour was not what mattered most to him. What mattered most is what is right, what is just and what should be done. It really took him lots of courage to do this and I really know that he tried his best to protect my rights. However, what is this place? Maycomb. The prejudice against blacks still prevail and Atticus changes nothing for me. In the end, I am bound to be sentenced to death.
In Maycomb, courageous and morally upright people like Atticus are almost extinct. People just follow the norms and discriminate against the blacks, thinking we are the lower echelons of people. We the blacks can only wait, waiting for the day when justice will be done, waiting for the day when there is equality among everyone, no matter who you are, and finally waiting for a better tomorrow. However, when will this day come? 10 years? 100 years? A million years? I think it only comes when we leave Maycomb and seek for a better environment where there is democracy and equality. Thus, I would like to reiterate my point that Maycomb is definitely not a good place to live in.
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