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To Kill a Mockingbird the American legal system
The legal aspect in "to kill a mockingbird
Racial injustice in the 1930s
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In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” , and the movie “A time to kill” by John Grisham , the main characters Atticus Finch and Jake Brigance both do their best to persuade their jurys to side with their arguments. Atticus Finch and Jake Brigance both use pathos in their closing arguments as their main source of persuasion and use pathos very effectively and in ways that really caused the jury to feel and think about the case differently. In Atticus's closing argument he utilizes pathos by using emotion to build pity for Mayella Ewell. “ She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white” (Atticus).
Atticus uses pathos in his closing argument to appeal to the emotions of the jury. He does this by painting an image of the suffering and injustice that Tom Robinson, the defendant, would face if he were to be convicted. He evokes feelings of empathy by describing the difficult circumstances of Tom's life and the discrimination he has faced because of his race. For example he says "Tom Robinson's a human being, just like you and me" In which he is trying to make the jury see the
This is an example of pathos because Atticus Is making the spectators and jury feel sorry about Tom Atticus uses pathos to show how Tom Robinson, who
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch uses several forms of persuasion to convince his audience of Tom Robinson’s innocence. These forms include Pathos, Logos, and Ethos – although he uses them all multiple times, Pathos is the form that is most used. Atticus is trying to provoke guilt out of the jury, and wants them to push aside their prejudice and see the obvious fact that Tom Robinson did not commit the crime of raping Mayella Ewell. The most powerful Pathos phrase he uses is, “…the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immortal, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women – black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.
The 1930s was a very challenging time for america, it was the peak of the the Great Depression and the social oppression of women. The fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is centered around the political issues america faced. The novel takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb Alabama where we look at the case of Tom Robinson against Mayella and Bob Ewell. The story goes that Tom Robinson went into the Ewell household and took advantage of Mayella and beat her. Although Mayella was actually the perpetrator, she won the case and Tom Robinson was sentenced to prison.
Throughout many instances throughout history, we learn that having social influence can change the way that the audience has perspectives about people. Cases such as the Scottsboro Trial shows this through the racism shown towards the teenage boys by the white people and the verdict of the trial. The case showed lots of racism towards the boys because of the color of their skin and the racism engraved into their mindsets. The case ended up being handed a life sentence for the boys by the all-white jury. Harper Lee links this similar to the novel To Kill A Mockingbird to show the racism displayed in the novel.
The Scottsboro Boys Case and To Kill a Mockingbird were cases of the injustice of black men. Harper Lee was trying to point out that a person 's skin color or race does not justify the actions they done, that anyone who practices prejudice is foolish. That prejudice is an actual reality that a person experiences first hand and hurts others in the process. Like Harper Lee with her father being a lawyer she must’ve experienced it first hand. These stories teach us that you shouldn’t judge a person by their race.
Also in the 1930’s blacks were thought of as trash or the lowest of the low. So almost every white person would treat them like they weren’t even really a human anymore. The setting and time of the book To Kill A Mockingbird is set around this time in Alabama. In the story, there is a black man named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell. His chances of making out alive are very low so the judge decides to put Atticus on the case because he would have the best chance of convincing the jury otherwise.
As children, innocence is the very basis of life; however, one thing leads to another, and that innocence is lost and replaced with a new outlook, a new sense of maturity. Harper Lee’s novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ takes place during the Great Depression in a small southern town called Maycomb. Starting from the beginning, the symbolism of mockingbirds and their innocence is revealed. As the story progresses, we get to see through the eyes of Scout Finch, the racial injustices the town bears through a court case involving a false accusation from Mayella Ewell, a white woman, and Tom Robinson, a black man. Though, as the trial progresses to an end and the verdict of Tom Robinson is decided by the all-white jury whilst disregarding the very
Tom Robinson, a black man in Maycomb who is falsely accused of raping and assaulting Mayella Ewell, is being cross-examined by Mr. Gilmer during his trial. Robinson testifies, denying the allegations and that he ran from Mayella because he was scared of being punished for a crime he didn’t commit. Harper Lee uses symbolism, foreshadowing, and tone to reveal the unjust treatment of African Americans during the 1930s. Tom Robinson’s vulnerability in court symbolizes the pervasive fear black people had for being arraigned because of the unfair justice system. Harper Lee’s use of the device highlights the large issues of racial inequality and injustice during this time.
Praised by some yet, ridiculed by others, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird provides material for the omnipresent debate on those recurring thematic issues of race, gender, and social structure which classify and define our society. Though written during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, the story takes place in the South during the Great Depression over a period of three years. During this time, the child protagonist Scout Finch bears witness to one of the county’s most significant trials - that of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman and a trial for which her father is the defence counsel. Through this trial, she learns lessons on morality, personal dignity, and what it means to exist within the boundaries of her society’s expectations.
To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Racial equality and discrimination is a founding issue that has been spread throughout every part of the world, To Kill A Mockingbird was written and published by Harper Lee in 1960, this time was dominated by civil rights protests and some of the first hippie movements following the crushing reality of the Vietnam War, the 60s also saw the struggle against segregation and racial equality. It is no surprise that the extreme political conflict affecting her life and world would greatly impact her writing and influence how she perceived the world during the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. the influence of the fight for racial inequality is shown greatly in her book as she depicts the everyday life
For many in the south, particularly African-Americans, the American Dream was well out of reach, due to the legal and social injustice they faced. This shines in Lee’s writing, as it is established in the novel the Tom Robinson, on trial for sexually assaulting a white girl, is innocent. His lawyer, Atticus Finch, makes it quite clear to the jury that he is telling the truth, (as he only has one working hand it’s difficult to grab someone by the throat) and that the victim is lying. But since this is 1930’s Alabama, a white person’s word is worth far more than a black man’s, and so he is wrongly convicted.
In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.
