Roslyn Siegel includes Tom Robinson as an example of the recurring motif among white Southern writers of the black man as "stupid, pathetic, defenseless, and dependent upon the fair dealing of the whites, rather than his own intelligence to save him".
Roslyn Siegel zaključuje da je Tom Robinson primjer čestog motiva bijelih pisaca Juga o "glupom, patetičnom, bespomoćnom i ovisnom crncu koji ovisi o bijelcima, a ne o sopstvenoj inteligenciji da ga spasi".