Atticus Speech In To Kill A Mockingbird

Frankie Messina Cline 4-12-16 Mod 9

-Analysis of Atticus's speech- Using the SMELL strategy In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Atticus, a lawyer who is the father of Jem and Scout two of the 3 protagonists in the story, made a speech to try and convince the jury to take the side of his colored defendant, Tom Robinson. He had many persuasive techniques that he had used in his speech, and here are a few: One of the abundant techniques is his Message, Another is his emotion

One of the ways his message was very convincing was how he tried to alert everyone of the idea that all men are created equally. In his speech, Atticus uses the statement “There’s one human institution that makes the pauper queal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal to an Einstein. That institution, gentlemen, is the court of law.”(On pg.81) That statement proposes that justice is blind to the poor or the rich, or to color or to the white man. Justice is only partial to the just man, regardless of who he or she is. Another example is when he talks about Thomas Jefferson’s phrase that “All men are created equal” and saying how it is being heard more often. “In this year of grace, 1935, we’re beginning to hear more and more references to Thomas Jefferson’s phrase about all men being created equal.”(On pg.80) It is showing that society is slowly evolving into being less and less racist towards colored people. One final example is when Atticus talks about to the jury about how all people are capable of good and bad, no matter if they are colored or not. He states, “...the evil assumption - that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.”(pg.80) Which directly means that not only colored people do rude and inconsiderate things, white men do them to. He also states, “This is a truth that applies to the entire human race, and to no particular race.”(On pg.80) Which helps prove his point even further. These are some just some examples of Atticus using his persuasive techniques in his