Atticus Finch Ethos In To Kill A Mockingbird

Throughout the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch was put to the test to defend juvenile Tom Robinson, an African American falsely accused of raping a white woman. Atticus fought long and hard and had he and Tom Robinson been guaranteed the right to a fair trial, they would have won. Atticus’s closing argument rendered countless pieces of evidence and did in fact catch the attention of the jury; but even in the beginning, the decision was clear. Although Atticus lost the trial, his argument was effective due to his excessive use of Aristotelian techniques. Atticus had used countless persuasive devices throughout his argument. One of which being ethos. Ethos can be shown in so many ways, especially in ethics. “This case should never have come to trial. This case [was] as simple as black and white,” (Lee 271). This case was such a deficiency in justice, nobody in

He used vocabulary that was meaningful and would evoke a feeling of guilt and remorse for Tom from the jury. Atticus turned some of the stone hard facts into pathos. “A quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has had to put his word against two right people,” (Lee 273). Tom felt bad for Mayella and all she had had to go through, but it was unheard of up to this point for an African American to feel sorry for a white person. In order to even just tell the truth, Tom has had to break the Jim Crow Laws, defy whites, and been somewhat mocked by his responses. The courtroom is a place where everyone is equal, and Tom was never treated as such. Atticus tried to get the court to see that in his argument. He wanted to make them feel remorse for Tom not having been able to share the truth of a crime he never committed. Now, he will have to face the consequences as an innocent man. By evoking emotion from the courthouse, Atticus’s usage of pathos was