Rhetorical Analysis of Speeches in to Kill a Mockingbird, Battle of Falkirk, and Brave Heart

The coming-of-age novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is set in the fictional town of Maycomb County, Alabama around the 1930s. Vile racial discrimination in Maycomb is what lead to the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Atticus, the father of Scout, was assigned to defend Robinson in court. Atticus organized his argument to be successful by using rhetorical devices- ethos, pathos, and logos.

Multiple times throughout his speech he brings up Mayella Ewell’s poor state and the lack of love and human contact in her life. He illustrates to them that she acted rashly and broke the unspoken rule of her people due to her sad emotional state. This shrewd lawyer does this to evoke emotions from the jury and make them see that Tom Robinson stands before them not as the culprit, but the subject of a misdemeanor. Using ethos Mr. Finch speaks in a way to persuade the jury and ultimately get his

With this in mind, each lawyers at the beginning of their arguments approached the jury formally, by addressing them as gentlemen. As they went further into their speeches, they both pick up on the topic of racism. Atticus stated, “the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immortal beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted.” This was a way in telling the jury to ignore racism, and give the defendants a fair trial. Not to mention, both lawyers also touched upon the defendant’s family and religion. In order to make the jury feel guilty if they did not make the right decision. Lastly, an interesting thing each lawyer did was pause a lot during long thoughts. It was meant to show emphasis on the words just spoken. With all this mind, the two lawyers did, in fact, differ a lot with their diction. Atticus at one point uttered, “She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with.” This was supposed to anger them and prove that it is not all Tom Robinson’s fault. Another thing Atticus did was go from very lengthy sentences in the beginning to short sentences by the end. On the other hand, in “A Lesson Before dying” the lawyer at the end thanks the jury saying, “I, thank you, gentlemen from the bottom of my heart, for your

The unusually long time for the jury to come to its verdict, demonstrates the effectiveness of Atticus’ speech which motivated them to think about their views on race. He may not win the case but, Atticus succeeds in making an impact on the future of racism in Maycomb and succeeds in founding a place where one day people “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. Although Tom is eventually proven guilty, Atticus’ persuasive speech makes an impact on the society by revealing Tom’s innocence and the multitude of prejudice taking place in their

The uses of syntax in his speech allows him to manipulate and control the flow of of his speech to direct the jury toward or away from a certain subject such as Mr. Ewell in one part of his speech “The defendant is not guilty, but someone in this courtroom is.” Atticus uses syntax and diction to help keep the subject of guiltiness off of Tom robinson by using defendant instead of his name and in the start of the sentence. Then then leads the jury to the subject of who is guilty by using opposites of not guilty and guilty. Additionally, the syntax of the sentence to point to Mr. Ewell who is guilty of at least beating Mayella. Another instance of the use of syntax in Atticus’s summation speech is “A courtroom is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.”

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, during chapters seventeen through twenty-one, one of the leading characters, Atticus, has to defend a black man in a court case against two white people. Before the jury is sent to make their decision, Atticus gives a closing argument speech. During his speech, Atticus uses three main types of persuasion called: ethos, pathos, and logos.

Prose appeals to ethos in this essay by appealing to the reader as a mother, educator, and student. By writing from the perspective of both a student and educator, Prose shows how both are affected by assigned literature. By discussing her own two sons, she appeals to readers who are mothers by expressing her concern about their education.

There are many instances in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird that show how kindness and generosity are more effective than rudeness and disrespect. One example of this is when Atticus is talking to Scout about understanding other people’s point of view. He tells her, “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” (Lee 36). This passage illustrates how Atticus is trying to instill good morals and values in his children. He believes that if you try to look at another point of view, you will be more successful in understanding others. Many people are closed-minded and unwilling to accept any perspective except their own. This can lead to a lot of misunderstandings and

Gentlemen, I shall be brief; but I would like to my remaining time with you to remind you how Atticus Finch’s closing argument had a strong basis in logic, however what made him convincing was his pathetic points. Mr. Finch was well aware the jury wanted to convict Tom Robinson from the start. So Mr. Finch developed a plan to persuade the jury using Aristotle three models of rhetoric: Logos, pathos, and Ethos. Mr. Finch would repeatedly use Logos an appeal to logic to make it clear how all evidence pointed away from Mr. Robinson. Atticus understood how irrational the jury when it came to Negros. So he used pathos appeal, to develop a connection between Mr. Robinson and the jury. For this to work to work the connection needed to be stronger

Along with logos, pathos is also frequently used throughout Atticus’ closing argument. In the text, Atticus states, “And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people’s.” By saying this, Atticus is building up Tom’s likability, and is trying to conduct some sort of pity toward Tom from the jury members. Although some argumentative techniques are used in this speech more than others, they are not necessarily the most effective.

It took an unimaginable amount of courage for Atticus to take the Tom Robinson case knowing he and his children would be harassed by all the other townspeople. For instance, when “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an' that nigger oughta hang from the water tank” (105). Also, Atticus knew he had a very low chance of succeeding in winning the case, but he took it anyways. He knows the town will think differently about him solely because he is defending a black man. He also knows that his children will be shown a lot of hatred. Even knowing this, Atticus takes the case and tries his best. Not only did he know he would take hatred, he also knew he would lose. But, he knew this case would define who he was “every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally”(96). While talking to the Judge he knows that he will most likely not win, but that does not change his mind. He knows just because Tom Robinson is black that he will not win. The Jury will see the white man who claims his white daughter was raped and believe him with no doubt. No matter what Atticus says to try to change the jury’s mind, he knows he can only try his best. To summarize, Atticus shows courage knowing not only that the town would hate him, but also that he would lose the

“How would it feel to be convicted for a crime that wasn’t committed just because of skin color?” This is what exactly happens in Harper Lee’s book “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Tom Robinson was charged guilty for rape and assault of Mayella Ewell. Atticus Finch went against Mr.Gilmer to defend Tom’s innocence. It was almost impossible to convince a white jury’s opinion towards Tom because of his color. Both Atticus and Mr.Gilmer both used Logos, Ethos and Pathos, rhetorical concepts in their arguments.Even though Mr.Gilmer had won the case, Atticus’s was more effective in terms of strengths and weaknesses shown.

Atticus’ speech is better than Jefferson's lawyer because Atticus tries to show the courtroom that Tom Robinson is innocent with facts, while Jefferson’s lawyer uses his unreliable and disrespectful theories to try to persuade the court. Jefferson’s lawyer says “He does not even know the size of the shoes or his clothes. Ask him to name the months of the year.” When Jefferson’s lawyer says this, he is describing his attorney as someone who doesn't have much and doesn't know much either.

Research shows that children are more susceptible to commit crimes, fail in maintaining long lasting relationships and develop depression as well as other psychological disorders from the effects of bad parenting. In fact, many people grow up treating others the same way their parents have treated them with reference to their parents’ values, behaviours and attitudes. Harper Lee, an American author, expressed her childhood experiences in Alabama through writing the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In this novel Harper Lee highlights the prevailing racist attitudes that existed in Alabama in the 1930s. Lee does this by having the parenting style of Atticus, and its impact on his children, stand in contrast to these prevailing racist attitudes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that Atticus Finch is a great parent because he is not a hypocrite, he has a sense of fairness and he has good morals and values.

Davis persuade the jury by ethos to show the defendant is innocent. Throughout Atticus’s closing argument, he tried to persuade the jury in different ways. He tried convincing the jury about his credibility of a citizen in Maycomb and lawyer. Towards the end of his argument, Atticus mentions how everyone is equal in court, that no one is higher than another. “I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe him” (Lee 274-275). Atticus used his credibility to persuade the members of the jury to believe Tom. Atticus also used his personal experience in court to convince the jury that Tom Robinson was not guilty, but innocent and should not be treated differently because of his race. Mr. Davis also used ethos to persuade the members of the jury while they were in the jury room. Most of the jurors were claiming that the boy was guilty because of the evidence that was provided. One piece of evidence was that one of the neighbors heard the boy say “I’m going to kill you” to his father moments before a body hit the floor. Mr. Davis was disagreeing with all of them, saying that he was not actually going to do it. Then a fight broke out between a juror and Mr. Davis. The juror said that he was going to kill him. Mr. Davis replied back saying that he does not mean that (12 Angry Men). Mr. Davis used his personal experience with hate to show that everyone says things that they will never do, just like the juror threating to kill Mr. Davis. Both men, Atticus and Mr. Davis, used ethos to persuade the