To Kill A Mockingbird Rhetorical Analysis

To kill a mockingbird can mean many things. It’s the title of a book that has been bought 40 million times. But, it also has a definition. To kill a mockingbird means to destroy innocence. The theme of my literary analysis is mockingbirds. Mockingbirds in TKAM are innocent things tainted by the skewed society of Maycomb. Some of these mockingbirds are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The main character and narrator is Jean Louise Finch, but is almost always called by her nickname, Scout. Scout, her brother, and her summer friend Dill get into all kinds of mischief while living in the racist society of a 1930’s Alabama town. Scout’s dad, Atticus, is a prominent lawyer in Maycomb and is appointed to a controversial case, and is defending a black man. Scout and her brother, Jem go through many troubles and learn many lessons from the days leading up to, and during the trial. The trail makes their family some friends and a lot of enemies. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story of courage and despair. Throughout TKAM, mockingbirds are used as an example of something innocent being tainted by the skewed society of TKAM. Some great examples of these are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children.

Power, it is something that everyone wants, it classifies us. “To Kill a Mockingbird” is about a powerless black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Because of Mayella’s class and gender she is powerless, but her race makes her have a little more power.

Atticus Finch was involved in a very controversial case that arrived in Maycomb county. During this case, Atticus, a white man, was chosen to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was accused of raping and abusing a white female, Mayella Ewell. In the 1960s, southern life was divided between colored and non colored people. Atticus’ challenge was to convince the white jury and a white judge that Tom Robinson was shall not be pleaded guilty. This challenge was difficult to complete, hence why Atticus was unable to convince the jury even though he put up a good fight. Within that fight, he used different types of appeals that were able to persuade the jury in a variety of ways. Atticus used the appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos

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.

Atticus Finch’s closing argument in To Kill a Mocking Bird uses the rhetorical devices Pathos and Ethos to communicate his message about Tom Robinson.

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

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the atmosphere of discrimination normalizes the use of slurs, and the ostracization of certain members of the community, for the children in the novel. To Kill A Mockingbird, written in 1960, set in the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama. This novel, from the perspective of the character Scout, is a tale of identity, injustice, and inequality in a time of heavy discrimination. In Lee’s novel, the use of slurs is a common occurrence in the town of Maycomb. Scout, as well as the other children in the novel, are exposed to adults and their peers using these slurs, and, consequently, slurs become a desensitized part of everyday language. From the beginning of the novel, Boo Radley is an enigma to Scout,

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

Undoubtedly, one of the most controversial subjects in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, would be whether or not Atticus Finch should have defended Tom Robinson. However, in order to understand this controversy, a person must first be able to understand Atticus Finch himself. Atticus as a character is a very intellectual person who possesses the fortitude to stand up for whatever he believes is right and will not let other people’s choices affect his own. Furthermore, it is also important to understand that Atticus is not a racist, nor does he approve of the idea that one group of people are better than another based on their appearances in general, and because of this, a person can generalize that Atticus’s characteristic traits are why he did not complain when given the task of defending a black man, Tom Robinson, who had been wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. A man that he, as well as a small group of other people from town, viewed as the picture of innocence. In their eyes, Tom was no more than a mockingbird, “[and mockingbirds] don’t do one thing but make music for [people] to enjoy” (Lee 119). Knowing this, anyone with a reasonably strong sense of what is right and what is wrong can conclude that it does make sense for Atticus Finch to have taken the case due to his belief that it is a sin to kill the innocent as well as his courage that allows him to stay true to his ideas, even though when taking the case, he was inevitably going to be putting his

“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.

First things first a word that is hard to really define because it means so many different things is power. Power is having control over something or being the stronger person overall being number one. A little summary about this story is it is about a black man by the name of Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a younger white woman by the name of Mayella Ewell.

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.

The ethos of the speech was not spoken, but presented to them. Before Atticus spoke he did an action that no one had seen him do before then even his own children,

Who would destroy something that contained a heart filled only with good? The answer to that can be found in the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee in an unjust time of unequal opportunity. The story follows the retelling of an 8-year-old girl named Jean Louis and those around her moral growth. She lives in Maycomb Alabama during the Great Depression. She has many chapters of growth including changing from afraid of a person to wanting to meet them, seeing people put on masks in order to avoid judgment, and watching an innocent man go to jail. Scout learns that to Kill a mockingbird is a sin for they have done no wrong, that people make that most meaningful mockingbirds, and the true significance of them because of the moral growth they bring about in people.