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Examples Of Jury In To Kill A Mockingbird

Decent Essays

Harper Lee, the writer of To Kill A MockingBird, builds an argument on how the jury in Maycomb court can acquit Tom Robinson, an African American who is the defendant in the court case; he has been accused of raping a white woman. She builds an argument through the character of Atticus. Maycomb is a town with racism and Atticus, a lawyer from Maycomb, defends Tom Robinson in the court. Harper Lee uses convincing elements, clear facts, and she arouses negative feelings from jury to support her argument. Harper Lee uses convincing elements in Atticus’s quotes to start the argument. She uses the tone of the sentence, “This case is as simple as black and white (271),” in order to show Atticus’s confidence in his argument. Also, in page 271, she uses the word, “guilt,” to describe the wrongdoing of Mayella Ewell instead of the word, “crime”; this word choice shows the jury that …show more content…

She arouses the astonishing emotions from the jury in page 272, by inserting the quote, “She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man.” The jury should be astonished by the behavior of Mayella Ewell and the author wants some of them to consider Mayella as a person who is guilty, not Tom Robinson. Moreover, she adds another quote in page 273 saying, “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...” This quote evokes the feeling of anger as the jury felt that they are getting used by the people who are considered “lower class” in Maycomb County. These negative feelings support Harper Lee’s argument since she wants the people to know that Ewells are the bad people and are the ones who are guilty, not Tom

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