To Kill A Mockingbird Court Trial Analysis

Author Harper Lee, in her novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, depicts a court trial in which Atticus Finch, a Maycomb County lawyer, attempts to defend an innocent black man, Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of rape and beating by a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Finch’s purpose is to prove Tom’s innocence to the court and avoid an inaccurate conviction. He adopts a deliberate tone in order to rule the jury’s speculation in favor of Robinsons guiltlessness.
Atticus begins his argument by contrasting social moralities versus actual law. He describes the actions of Mayella Ewell, the accuser, as, “Something that in [their] society is unspeakable,” because she was white, and, “tempted a Negro”(231). This statement introduces the idea that Mayella may have not committed a crime, but she committed an act particularly looked down upon and seen as socially immoral. The relation to social moralities appeals to the jury’s knowledge and experiences in association with racism in their community. Continuing his allegation, Atticus assures the jury that Mayella had not committed a crime, she had, “ merely broken a rigid and time honored code of [their] society”(231). Finch is further explaining the severity of Mayella’s wrong doings and the abomination she has committed against her community. This statement is used to silently “point a finger” back at Mayella, also identified as paralipsis in the text, to entice the jury that

The strong connections and powerful reasoning from start to finish allows the jury to understand and recognize the veracity behind the case as a whole. That being, a far more larger problem than the false accusation of rape and beating, the issue of racism in the given time period. Overall, Atticus delivers an impressive approach to the case, and undoubtedly defends Tom Robinson’s