How Does Atticus Finch Use Rhetorical Appeals In To Kill A Mockingbird

Samantha Ilewicz

Pre AP English 9

Rachel Drouin

10 March 2023

Super awesome cool title In a court case, there is a defendant and a prosecutor. Each of these people has a motivation to win, and an argument to do so. To make these arguments stronger, rhetorical appeals are used. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell kisses Tom Robsinson, a black man, during a time where that was not accepted throughout society. Due to these assumptions, Mayella comes to the decision that she must frame the man, and is motivated to follow through with it. When brought to court, the case is seen by Atticus Finch, a lawyer whose motivation is argued with powerful rhetorical techniques. Atticus Finch brings justice to the court by using the logos and pathos

During the trial, Atticus reveals that, “Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely,”(Lee). Mayella and her father claimed the abuser to be Tom Robinson. As Mayella had been beaten mostly on her left side, Atticus mentioned that Mayella’s father “swore out a warrant, no doubt signing it with his left hand,”(Lee). By showing Mayella’s father’s dominant hand, the newfound information that he was possibly guilty entered the jury’s minds, yet Tom Robinson was still a suspect. To defend Tom, Atticus said that, “Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses-his right,”(Lee). With this, Atticus successfully proved that Tom could not have beaten Mayella, but with the racist thoughts of the jury, he also had to convince them with more

By his logic, if the court knew what Mayella thought throughout the case, and knew why she framed Tom, they would be able to understand that Tom is innocent. Atticus provides logical reasoning to this by explaining that, “She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man.”(Lee). Atticus describes what Mayella did, but explains why she felt it was so wrong. It wasn’t because she had committed a crime, and it wasn’t because Tom committed a crime; it was because she had broken the racist codes of Maycomb county, and because this racism was embedded so deep in the roots of her life, Mayella needed to frame Tom so she wouldn’t be thought of as someone negative. This shows Mayella’s motive to frame Tom, and by showing that, the court is further convinced to believe Tom Robinson. Despite this, the jury is still full of racists, so Atticus does more for Tom's case through the use of the pathos