These Tom Robinson quotes from To Kill A Mockingbird will give you a deeper understanding.
Tom Robinson was a black man accused of raping a white woman in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Atticus Finch defended him but was ultimately found guilty by an all-white jury despite the evidence against him being flimsy. Robinson was shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.
This article will cover Tom Robinson’s direct quotes from the trial.
90 To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes With Page Numbers
Tom Robinson Character Analysis
Tom Robinson is a character in Harper Lee’s beloved classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. He is an honest and moral African American man falsely accused of raping a white woman in the 1930s Deep South.
Despite the injustice he faces due to rampant racial prejudice, Tom is an inspiring example of strength, determination, and moral integrity.
He is a hardworking man devoted to his family, and despite being mistreated by the law, he stands up for what he believes is right.
Tom’s courage and unwavering commitment to justice are empowering examples of the power of the human spirit.
Direct Tom Robinson Quotes With Page Numbers
“Tom was twenty-five years of age; he was married with three children; he had been in trouble with the law before: he once received thirty days for disorderly conduct.
“It must have been disorderly,” said Atticus. “What did it consist of?”
“Got in a fight with another man, he tried to cut me.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Character: Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 216
“You were both convicted?”
“Yes suh, I had to serve ‘cause I couldn’t pay the fine. Other fellow paid his’n.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“Were you acquainted with Mayella Violet Ewell?” asked Atticus.
“Yes suh, I had to pass her place goin‘ to and from the field every day.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“I picks for Mr. Link Deas… I works pretty steady for him all year round.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Character: Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“You say you had to pass the Ewell place to get to and from work. Is there any other way to go?”
“No suh, none’s I know of.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“Tom, did she ever speak to you?”
“Why, yes suh, I’d tip m’hat when I’d go by, and one day she asked me to come inside the fence and bust up a chiffarobe for her.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“When did she ask you to chop up the—the chiffarobe?”
“Mr. Finch, it was way last spring. I remember it because it was choppin‘ time and I had my hoe with me. I said I didn’t have nothin’ but this hoe, but she said she had a hatchet. She give me the hatchet and I broke up the chiffarobe. She said, ‘I reckon I’ll hafta give you a nickel, won’t I?’ an‘ I said, ’No ma’am, there ain’t no charge.‘ Then I went home. Mr. Finch, that was way last spring, way over a year ago.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“Did you ever go on the place again?”
“Yes suh.”
“When?”
“Well, I went lots of times.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 217
“Why did you go inside the fence lots of times?”
Tom Robinson’s forehead relaxed. “She’d call me in, suh. Seemed like every time I passed by yonder she’d have some little somethin‘ for me to do—choppin’ kindlin‘, totin’ water for her. She watered them red flowers every day—”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 218
“Were you paid for your services?”
“No suh, not after she offered me a nickel the first time. I was glad to do it, Mr. Ewell didn’t seem to help her none, and neither did the chillun, and I knowed she didn’t have no nickels to spare.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 218
“Where were the other children?”
“They was always around, all over the place. They’d watch me work, some of ‘em, some of ’em’d set in the window.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 218
“Would Miss Mayella talk to you?”
“Yes sir, she talked to me.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 218
“Did you ever,” Atticus interrupted my meditations, “at any time, go on the Ewell property—did you ever set foot on the Ewell property without an express invitation from one of them?”
“No suh, Mr. Finch, I never did. I wouldn’t do that, suh.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 218
“Tom, what happened to you on the evening of November twenty-first of last year?” (Atticus)
…
“Mr. Finch,” he said, “I was goin‘ home as usual that evenin’, an‘ when I passed the Ewell place Miss Mayella were on the porch, like she said she were. It seemed real quiet like, an’ I didn’t quite know why. I was studyin‘ why, just passin’ by, when she says for me to come there and help her a minute. Well, I went inside the fence an‘ looked around for some kindlin’ to work on, but I didn’t see none, and she says, ‘Naw, I got somethin’ for you to do in the house. Th‘ old door’s off its hinges an’ fall’s comin‘ on pretty fast.’ I said you got a screwdriver, Miss Mayella? She said she sho‘ had. Well, I went up the steps an’ she motioned me to come inside, and I went in the front room an‘ looked at the door. I said Miss Mayella, this door look all right. I pulled it back’n forth and those hinges was all right. Then she shet the door in my face. Mr. Finch, I was wonderin’ why it was so quiet like, an‘ it come to me that there weren’t a chile on the place, not a one of ’em, and I said Miss Mayella, where the chillun?”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 219
“I say where the chillun?” he continued, “an‘ she says—she was laughin’, sort of—she says they all gone to town to get ice creams. She says, ‘took me a slap year to save seb’m nickels, but I done it. They all gone to town.’”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 219-220
“I said somethin‘ like, why Miss Mayella, that’s right smart o’you to treat ’em. An‘ she said, ’You think so?‘ I don’t think she understood what I was thinkin’—I meant it was smart of her to save like that, an‘ nice of her to treat em.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 220
“I understand you, Tom. Go on,” said Atticus.
“Well, I said I best be goin‘, I couldn’t do nothin’ for her, an‘ she says oh yes I could, an’ I ask her what, and she says to just step on that chair yonder an‘ git that box down from on top of the chiffarobe.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 220
“Not the same chiffarobe you busted up?” asked Atticus.
The witness smiled. “Naw suh, another one. Most as tall as the room. So I done what she told me, an‘ I was just reachin’ when the next thing I knows she—she’d grabbed me round the legs, grabbed me round th‘ legs, Mr. Finch. She scared me so bad I hopped down an’ turned the chair over—that was the only thing, only furniture, ‘sturbed in that room, Mr. Finch, when I left it. I swear ’fore God.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 220
“What happened after that?”
“Answer the question,” said Judge Taylor. One-third of his cigar had vanished.
“Mr. Finch, I got down offa that chair an‘ turned around an’ she sorta jumped on me.”
“Jumped on you? Violently?”
“No suh, she—she hugged me. She hugged me round the waist.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 220
“She reached up an‘ kissed me ’side of th‘ face. She says she never kissed a grown man before an’ she might as well kiss a n*****. She says what her papa do to her don’t count. She says, ‘Kiss me back, n*****.’ I say Miss Mayella lemme outa here an‘ tried to run but she got her back to the door an’ I’da had to push her. I didn’t wanta harm her, Mr. Finch, an‘ I say lemme pass, but just when I say it Mr. Ewell yonder hollered through th’ window.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 221
“Tom, did you rape Mayella Ewell?”
“I did not, suh.”
“Did you harm her in any way?”
“I did not, suh.”
“Did you resist her advances?”
“Mr. Finch, I tried. I tried to ‘thout bein’ ugly to her. I didn’t wanta be ugly, I didn’t wanta push her or nothin‘.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 221
“Tom, go back once more to Mr. Ewell,” said Atticus. “Did he say anything to
you?”“Not anything, suh. He mighta said somethin‘, but I weren’t there—”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Pages 221-222
“Mr. Finch, he were talkin‘ and lookin’ at Miss Mayella.”
“Then you ran?”
“I sho‘ did, suh.”
“Why did you run?”
“I was scared, suh.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 222
“Why were you scared?”
“Mr. Finch, if you was a n***** like me, you’d be scared, too.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 222
“Tom Robinson: Looks like she didn’t have nobody to help her. I felt right sorry for her. She seemed…
Prosecutor: You felt sorry for her? A white woman? You felt sorry for her?”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Mr. Gilmer and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 224
“Were you so scared that she’d hurt you, you ran, a big buck like you?”
“No suh, I’s scared I’d be in court, just like I am now.”
“Scared of arrest, scared you’d have to face up to what you did?”
“No suh, scared I’d hafta face up to what I didn’t do.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Mr. Gilmer and Tom Robinson), Chapter 19, Page 225
Quotes About Tom Robinson
“Tom was a black-velvet Negro, not shiny, but soft black velvet. The whites of his eyes shone in his face, and when he spoke we saw flashes of his teeth. If he had been whole, he would have been a fine specimen of a man.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Character: Scout Finch as the narrator), Chapter 19, Page 219
37 Scout Finch Quotes With Page Numbers
“To begin with, this case should never have come to trial…’The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place… It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewel was beaten – savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses… his RIGHT. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say “guilt,” gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She’s committed no crime – she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now, what did she do? She tempted a *****. She was white, and she tempted a *****. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young ***** man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption… the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all ***** men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is, in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable *****, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against TWO white people’s! The defendant is not guilty – but somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system – that’s no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality! Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review, without passion, the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision and restore this man to his family. In the name of GOD, do your duty. In the name of God, believe… Tom Robinson”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, about Tom Robinson (Character: Atticus Finch), Chapter 20, Pages 230-31
Atticus Finch Quotes With Page Numbers
“Then Mr. Underwood’s meaning became clear: Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Character: Scout Finch as narrator), Chapter 25, Page 276
How many times was Tom Robinson shot quote?
“They shot him,” said Atticus. “He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them—”
“Didn’t they try to stop him? Didn’t they give him any warning?” Aunt Alexandra’s voice shook.
“Oh yes, the guards called to him to stop. They fired a few shots in the air, then to kill. They got him just as he went over the fence. They said if he’d had two good arms he’d have made it, he was moving that fast. Seventeen bullet holes in him. They didn’t have to shoot him that much. Cal, I want you to come out with me and help me tell Helen.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, (Characters: Atticus Finch and Aunt Alexandria), Chapter 24, Page 268
Where does Tom Robinson show courage?
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson shows courage in many ways.
One example is when he refuses to confess to a crime he did not commit despite the repeated attempts of the white authorities to force him to do so.
Despite his fear of the consequences of his refusal, he maintains his innocent stance, even though it puts his life in danger.
Another example is when he willingly faces the hostile mob who has come to lynch him. Tom remains courageous in the face of danger and does not resist their threats.
He also faces the trial with dignity and courage, even though the all-white jury has predetermined his guilt. Even when his attorney, Atticus Finch, tells him to plead guilty, Tom stands his ground and refuses to do so.
Through his brave and dignified behavior, Tom Robinson is an inspiring example of strength and courage.
Conclusion
Tom Robinson’s quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird are powerful and timeless. They reflect the racism and injustice of the period and the courage of one man facing an unjust system.
His words continue reverberating, inspiring people to stand for what is right and fight for justice and equality.
His quotes remind us why it is so important to never give up in the face of injustice and always strive for a more equitable and just society.