In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus’s closing argument was unsuccessful. In Atticus’s closing argument, he makes it so the jury will assuredly understand. The Jurors are all white and from out of town so they are biased and don’t know the townspeople and how they behave. Atticus tries to connect with the Jury but he was ineffectual. Atticus’s closing argument was not effective because of cognitive bias and he couldn’t persuade his audience.
Atticus's closing argument in To Kill a Mockingbird is a good display of several talking and writing styles such as ethos, pathos, and logos. His closing argument uses a tone that contributes to the persuasive effectiveness of his argument. Atticus Finch’s speech is an attempt to appeal to the jury to look beyond racial prejudice and to do what is right. I am going to attempt to analyze and show how Atticus uses these rhetorical strategies to contribute to the poignancy and effectiveness of his closing argument.
The main character in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is Atticus Finch, a middle aged man living in Maycomb Alabama. Even though he is a southerner he isn’t racist and he believes that everyone should be treated equal, Atticus teaches his children empathy and not to discriminate against other people, he does his by telling them “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Even though Atticus treats everyone as equals he gets affected by the town and their prejudice way of thinking. Because Atticus accepts Tom Robinsons case he gets called a “nigger lover” and him and his children get treated differently by the town.
Ultimately, Atticus had an acceptable course of action based on the evidence shown. Atticus Finch became a part of a very controversial court case, and tried his best to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, even though he knew it would be tough to win. On page 274, Atticus says, “ Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.” In other words, Atticus believes that for the court system to be fair, it requires all evaluees to remember that all men are created equal no matter what their skin color looks like. During this time period, racism was very strong and sided with the whites.
In society today there are those that are pushed out of the crowd because of what they look like, how they act, and what others say to be true about them. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows that unselfish, kind hearted people can experience prejudice from others. Always wanting to be the better person, Atticus Finch is like the mockingbird when taking the responsibility of defending Tom Robinson, who is a black man. Once Atticus gets the news that he will be defending Tom Robinson, who is accused of rape, he is very stressed until the end of the trial. Harper Lee shows this when she says, “It’s this Tom Robinson case that’s worrying him to death...”
Atticus’ closing argument In the story “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Atticus will go on to take a court case with a black man as his defendant. Tom Robinson is a black man who is accused of raping 19 year old Mayella Ewell. It was proven that she was beaten on the right side of her eye. This was important since Tom Robinson was missing most of his left hand.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a book all about innocence and social inequality, and because Scout gets older, the innocence goes away and the social inequalities grow. A lot of the characters play a big role in the social inequality part of the book. Many of the characters in the book, like Atticus, want Tom Robinson to have a fair trial, but many also want Tom Robinson to have an unfair trial. “‘The main one is, if I didn’t
In the part two of the book, Tom Robinson, a black man is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The social norm of this time was to respect whites, and treat blacks differing. Therefore, it was a sin for Tom to disrespect Mayella. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and respected white man fought for Tom and bravely tried as his lawyer. On trial, there was evidence that Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father beat, and raped her.
At the time of Tom Robinson’s trial, Atticus Finch was audacious and did something almost no-one else would be willing to do, which was properly defend Tom. While his decision caused controversy in the town of Maycomb, Atticus still had to ensure that his children were not being affected. When he learns of the things Scout's classmates are saying, Atticus shows his children how to be truly courageous and teaches them of equality. Firstly, he demonstrates a lesson in equality when he decides to defend Tom in the first place. Atticus says "The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any colour of the rainbow," (295).
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Lee Harper, an African American man by the name of Tom Robinson is deemed guilty of raping and abusing a white woman known as Mayella Ewell. Despite the outcome of the trial, the evidence provided in the courtroom suggests otherwise of him being culpable. It can be determined that Atticus’s client was given punishment because of the color of his skin, and his trial was completely unfair. Although Atticus had very strong reasons to avoid being the defender of Tom Robinson he still contributed to the case because it appeared as the right thing to do to in his perspective. In the writer of the essay’s personal opinion, it was very logical of Atticus to take action in justifying the events that Tom
In the well-known novel To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the lead characters, Atticus Finch, shares an iconic life lesson: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it,” (pg. 30.) Atticus is wise lawyer and father of two children where throughout the book he demonstrates what a mature, empathetic, and intelligent man he is. In this story Atticus is assigned a black man to defend in court, at a place in history when it was not acceptable for a white male to defend an African American male accused of rape charges on a white girl. As Harper Lee possibly foreshadows his case with Tom Robinson, Atticus is telling his children that you cannot judge someone by what is said about them or what might be the socially acceptable impression towards a group of people. Atticus teaches his children and community that it is not fair to judge someone if you cannot truly relate to what they have been through/go through.
While many people in the town are angry that Tom Robinson will get a trial, and that Atticus will represent him, Atticus earns a lot of respect from the people in Maycomb because of the way that he lives his life
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch, against all odds, chooses to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Mr. Ewell’s white daughter. During the 1930s, when the story took place, Tom’s hometown Maycomb was very racist and segregated. Negroes were considered inferior to all white people, making it difficult for Atticus to support Mr. Robinson against the “superior”Mr. Ewell.
In our society, innocent people, known as mockingbirds, experience prejudice in their lives. A/T: In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Background: Tom Robinson is a black person who’s was accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell which he has never done. For this reason, Atticus Finch was appointed to be his lawyer. As a result, Atticus takes a stand for him by approving his case and standing up for him, but Tom was still found guilty.
Tom Robinson is a young African-American who's been accused of raping and abusing Mayella Ewell, a young and closeted white woman. Racial discrimination is hinted throughout Tom’s trial as Atticus Finch explains to Jem that a white man’s word will always win over that of a black man’s - "... In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (220). Atticus explains to Jem that in the courts of Maycomb, a black man’s state of innocence or guilt is truly determined by a white man’s testimony.
