While going through these chapters, we as readers are introduced to a new and rather intriguing character named Tom Robinson. The character himself really stuck out to me due to the fact that I feel as though he embodies one of the previous topics we had discussed earlier in the course. Specifically, I feel as though the character of Tom Robinson as well as how his character affects other supporting characters, hearkens back to the ideas and concepts introduced and touched on in Jasbir Puar’s The Right to Maim. In her piece, Puar mentions how one’s race could essentially be looked at as a disability in the fact that individuals of certain races face problems and stigmatization that others do not and I feel like that is clearly seen in Tom Robinson’s character. This is evident in the fact that Tom Robinson is an African-American male who is being accused and tried for the rape of a white woman even though he is innocent. He also must face the debilitating circumstances of being an accused African-American being tried by an all white jury. On top of Robinson’s case, hist story and unfortunate circumstances also lead to other African-American characters directly linked to him being faced with hardships. Atticus, the person in charge of defending him is being stigmatized and called racial slurs, Helen Robinson, Tom’s wife, is unable to get any work due to her husband’s current status, and main characters Jem and Scout become subjects of whispers and glances around the town. The character of Tom Robinson directly embodies the ideas presented in Puar’s The Right to Maim and displays them to the reader in hopes to increase awareness of and to shed light on these issues that are still happening today.
