Emotional Appeal In To Kill A Mockingbird

Another rhetorical technique used by the authors of both of the speeches discussed is emotional appeal. By structuring their speeches in such a way that allows the readers to connect on a personal level, the authors of both of these speeches are able to convey their messages with increased persuasiveness and beauty. In LBJ’s speech, various real world examples as well as personal anecdotes are used to increase the emotional appeal of the writing. One of the places where he uses this is when he states “The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he

Throughout his closing arguments, Atticus is constantly trying to show both the jury and the people of Maycomb why this case should never have gone to trial and he does so with a lot of emotional appeal. An example of this is seen when he states “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (271). This quote uses powerful language such as the phrase “as simple as black and white” which shows how a case with seemingly blatant evidence proving Tom Robinson’s innocence, is undermined by the prejudice which exists in society at the time. Atticus argues that the whole reason this case had ever gotten to this point is because of the racial inequality in Maycomb and throughout the country at the time. Thus this quote uses the dichotomy of black and white to show that even though the case may be simple on the surface, the underlying racism which prevails throughout the process makes the case not so clear and therefore much more complex than one may initially think. This simple statement which Atticus starts his speech off with shows the power of emotional appeal in his argument. By structuring his speech so as to grab the courtroom’s attention right from the start, Atticus is able to personally connect with the people in the room on various levels of depth in hopes of not only changing the jury’s ideas about the case but also the Maycomb citizens’ ideas about race. This use of emotional appeal in Atticus’s rhetoric contributes to the power and beauty of the text and is very effective in doing so. It allows the message of objective thinking over prejudice to really come out because it exposes the underlying racism which exists in this trial. This makes the speech quite powerful, especially to the reader, because it shows how prejudicial thinking can really affect the outcome of