To Kill A Mockingbird Closing Speech

Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch is the main character in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and is the narrator of the story. She starts the novel at the age of six, and over the course of the novel, grows to be nine. Racism affects Scout throughout the story mainly because of her father, Atticus Finch, being involved with defending a black man in court that was accused of raping a white woman. Scout also resides in a small Alabama town called Maycomb. This also leads to much prejudice throughout the book.

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said “I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. Even though Atticus Finch is not black, he still thinks they same way as Martin Luther King Jr. and still wants the same for his children: a society with equality for all races. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, he delivers a persuasive speech in order to free an innocent black man. Even though he does not win the case, Atticus succeeds in making an impact on the future of racism in Maycomb. By using logic in his closing speech, Atticus forces the town to examine their awareness of the prejudice in their own lives.

This can be seen when Atticus announces to the judge, “I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt” (Lee 271). Atticus is almost positive that Mayella is trying to cover up what she did, but Atticus does not poke around too much. Atticus reveals what is necessary to help his case and nothing more. While Atticus could have targeted Mayella to get her to reveal more information, he simply infers what he thinks happened. Atticus is very fair to Mayella in the fact that he doesn’t destroy her reputation by continuing on further with his idea of the way things went one night when Tom was at her house. Atticus believes that Tom and Mayella need to be treated equal, regardless of whether Mayella is going to hurt Tom or not. Atticus says that he has no sympathy for Mayella, but the rest of the book says otherwise. This shows how Atticus treats everyone equally, whether it be Tom Robinson, Mayella, or even the

Atticus Finch is one of the major characters in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird written in 1960. Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb, the representative of Alabama in the State Legislator and the father of Scout and Jem Finch. The major themes and ideas tackled in Lee's novel such as social inequality and intolerance, education, legal justice and bravery are represented in one way or another through this character.

One of To Kill a Mockingbird biggest moments is when Atticus is at court, trying to save the young African Americans life. The black man is named Tom Robinson and the young girl who accused him of rape is Mayella. There is evidence, proven by Atticus that Tom could not do what Mayella claimed he did. However, Atticus still manages to have some respect towards Mayella. On page 271, Atticus says at court, “which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. I say guilt gentlemen because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society.” Atticus still has some sort of respect for this woman even though she is claiming something very bad. Through all of the things that Mayella has done,

Lawyering can be really difficult and requires a lot of patience when fighting for someone’s life on the line even though they didn’t crime. In the story, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys the theme of equal rights when Atticus Finch fights for Tom Robinson allegedly “raping” Mayella Ewell. In his final speech to the jury, Atticus applies ethos, pathos, and logos in order to collide with the jury for Tom allegedly raping Mayella because of his ethnicity(black).

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout tells about some of the crazy adventures with her brother, Jem, and her neighbor Dill. To Kill A Mockingbird is a fitting title because Tom Robinson could be labeled as a Mockingbird, Arthur Radley could be labeled as a Mockingbird, and because the story revolves around the fact that it is a sin to kill something that only provides happiness. Arthur Radley could be labeled as a mockingbird because he has never done anything bad to anyone. In the novel towards the end, Mr. Tate tells Atticus that dragging Arthur into the light of the people would be a sin. “Mr. Tate was right.”...

In the beginning epigraph of To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee quotes a statement made by Charles Lamb: "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once." As told through the eyes of the rambunctious elementary school child, Scout Finch, we see not only how she and her brother's lives are affected by their community, also how they develop and mature under the watch of their father, lawyer Atticus Finch. As a wise role model to his town of Maycomb as well as his children, Atticus Finch becomes a prominently admirable character. As a father, lawyer, friend, and foe, Atticus Finch proves himself to be an honest, selfless, and courageous human being. Throughout many of the

Maycomb County has been living a few dynamic days, as it not only snowed yesterday, but also today at approximately 2 in the morning a tremendous fire burnt the house of Maudie Atkinson to the ground. Even though the cause of the fire has not been confirmed yet, it is highly believed that it was due to the flue in her kitchen. Since it had not snowed since 1885, the people in town were not prepared. The fire truck was killed by the extreme weather and it took plenty of time for it to arrive to the scene, but fortunately it arrived in time to prevent the fire from spreading to other houses in the neighborhood. The commotion among everyone was clearly perceived.

When Atticus asks Mayella ‘who are your friends?’ (p.245) she is perplexed by the question demonstrating to us how she must be ‘the loneliest person in the world’ (p. 256). Furthermore, Lee clearly explains to us she is accustomed to being treated poorly as when Atticus refers to her as ‘ma’am’ and speaks to her politely she believes initially that he is ‘mockin’ me’ (p.243). Reflecting on how Mayella is trapped in her improvised, friendless state with nobody who respects her, we realise it would not have been difficult for her to become fixated on and fantasise about Tom Robinson, as he ‘was probably the only person who was ever decent to her’ (p.257). We are also able to understand why she lies about Tom raping her during the trial when we take into consideration that Mayella is living in fear of what her drunk and abusive father, Bob Ewell, would do to her if she was truthful. As she has already been ‘beaten savagely’ (p.272) and possibly raped by her father, after she ‘kissed a black man’ (p.272), her trepidation is unsurprising. By climbing into Mayella’s skin and walking around in it we see Lee is helping us to learn the importance of considering people’s circumstances before judging their actions.

What was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was her daily reminder of what she did. What did she do? She tempted a Negro.” (Lee, pg. 207). this evidence demonstrates that Atticus takes race into account and uses it to his advantage in the case, while showing the jury that race shouldn’t matter in the case of trial and advocates for Tom Robinson to have the same rights as Mayella. Atticus stands up for Tom again in his closing statement, with a powerful delivery of a powerful quote, “But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the

In the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the novel depicts a Southern town with a crisis of conscience and race. The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the early 1930s, while poverty and unemployment were at their peak due to the Great Depression. Maycomb like any other town has its agriculture, buildings, and people. With people come injustices, judgmental views, consciences, crimes, etc. Due to this there are law enforcers, courts, lawyers, judges and those accusing or being accused. One of the town lawyers is Atticus Finch. Atticus is a level-headed man who has faced many dilemmas with his profession as a lawyer, family and town. Atticus has a daughter, Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, and

In Atticus’s closing argument, he says that “the witnesses for the state… have presented themselves to you gentlemen… confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women”(Lee Document D). Mayella was able to make a case against Tom even though she had no evidence and nothing but the fact that she was white and he was black. While Mr. Gilmer was questioning Tom, he asks him why he helped Mayella without accepting any money from her, and he answers: “ I felt right sorry for her”(Lee Document E).

During the story Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Even though many of Maycomb’s citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom in hopes he could give some justice to Tom. Later in the plot it is made abundantly clear that Mayella did not have relations with Tom, and was only trying to cover for her dad, Bob Ewell, who had beaten and raped her before, but before this information was found Tom was convicted and murdered. The trial and conviction serve as high points in the story because soon after the readers learn Tom is convicted purely based on his color of skin. “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee, page 251-252). The written discrimination put a black man behind bars based on false information and nobody blinked an eye. The lesson that Scout learns is applicable to all types of prejudice because people who are different from ones self may feel separated and that in order to hold ones power, processions, and status, privileged races or people much like Bob Ewell will justify their behaviors in order to keep the other races

In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird , she recalls her experiences as a six-year-old child from an adult perspective. Scout describes the circumstances of her widowed father, Atticus, and his legal defense of Tom Robinson. Robinson was a local black man accused of raping a white woman, which arose many ethics between society. Throughout the three years surrounding the trial, Scout and Jem, witnessed the unjust consequences of prejudice and hate. Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird was published during the Civil Rights movement, and was used to implicate a Southern racist society by using rhetorical appeals and devices. Throughout the book , Harper Lee reveals her ideas concerning racial prejudice, faith in justice, and the goodness of