Rhetorical Analysis Of To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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.

Ethos refers to the writer’s credibility on a given topic. In Atticus’ speech he states “I shall be brief, but I would like to use my remaining time with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant… This case is as simple as black and white.” Atticus supporting Tom Robinson automatically gives him credibility because he is a lawyer, with a certain level of intelligence. Being a lawyer allows Atticus to gain support from the jury. Also, Atticus is using the idea of racism to show how everyone is so quick to judge the case since it is between a white human and a black human. Most would side with the white woman as a result to the divide between blacks and whites in the 1960s; whites were superior to blacks during this time period. When Atticus mentions that the case is “black and white”, he is leaving it up to the jury to make an ethical decision to chose who is to blame. In the end, the jury must decide whether to “save” the black side or the white side. Atticus will attempt to persuade people to pick the innocent man based on what they think is right in their heart as opposed to picking the person with the same skin color as them. As a result to Atticus’ occupation, many of those on the jury believe Atticus and the points he makes and so he is able to make some join/support Tom Robinson’s

Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “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” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel takes place during the depression in Alabama with the main character, Scout, viewing her lawyer father, Atticus, defending a wrongly accused black man of rape. The reader gets to understand Scout’s childhood view of this controversial situation. Scout’s character in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is really the author’s own life playing out in the novel, which is most likely why this novel is thought to be one of the best American Novels of the 20th century.

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.

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

To Kill A Mockingbird In many different works of literature, characters will stand up for what they believe in, even if what they believe in is something that is looked down upon. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the character Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer, believes that Tom Robinson is not guilty, so he decides to stand up for him, despite the fact it makes the whole town dislike him because he is standing up for a black man. Throughout the book, Atticus continuously defends Tom Robinson, even though in the end, Tom Robinson is found guilty. Despite all of the opposition, Atticus does not stop defending what he believes in until the end of the book, when Tom Robinson is killed and he cannot do anything else.

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.

In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Everybody in Maycomb in against him and the only spark of hope that this man has is Atticus, but was it worth it? The author of this book is Harper Lee and it is written in Scout’s perspective. Scout is Atticus’s daughter who narrates a court case in which Tom Robinson is accused by the Ewell’s of beating and raping Mayella, the oldest daughter of the family. Atticus has many reasons of why not to defend Tom Robinson but his reasons for doing it outweigh them.

I’d mentioned a lot of respect from the first half of the story on the first english test, so now I will build off of said respect. In part two of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ the bulk of the trial begins. Atticus himself states to Scout that they simply won’t win. Regardless, he gives the case his best. Unfortunately, he loses the case because the verdict came back as “guilty,” all likely only because of Tom Robinson being black and Bob Ewell being white.

“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.” This is what Atticus said to Scout when she comes back home in her first day of school. She has a bad day at school and then he asks for her dad if she can stay at home and not going back to school. Than Atticus give his daughter this advice which became one of the world famous quote.

I wanted to say it was none of his business but responded, “It’s eczema, just a skin condition.”

Many women must hide their identities for equality and acceptance in society. In many cases women try to hide their true identities in order to escape ridicule from those who do not believe in equality for all. A quote from a book that explains this well is in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The quote is "Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home—I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more like a girl every day" (Lee 69)The previous statement is a great testimony to where thing used to be to where they are now while things aren't quite perfect times keep getting easier for women in society. Even back in WWII women were treated as animals inferior to men. A great example from a wonderful piece of literacy