To Kill A Mockingbird Ethos Analysis

The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a black man named Tom Robinson who is being charged with the rape of a white girl named Mayella Ewell. While the lawyers are giving their closing statements, Atticus Finch, the lawyer for Tom Robinson, makes his closing statement using ethos and logos persuasive methods to show that Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell were lying. The logo is the principle of reason and judgment. Ethos is appealing to somebody's emotions. These persuasion methods were effective because Atticus uses this technique a lot one example of this is when he uses logos and asks Bob Ewell to put his signature on a piece so that he could see what Bob Ewell's dominant hand was because according to heck Tate her right side

of her face was beaten up and that means that a lefty would have had to have punched her so when Bob Ewell had signed the paper with his left hand he had evidence that really Bob Ewell really did it because Tom Robinson's left arm was badly hurt in an accident with a machine. But besides this evidence he needed more of the evidence to prove Tom Robinson’s innocence.
In Atticus’s closing statement, he focuses on the logos method so he can focus on the facts of the case. Atticus wants to prove that Tom Robinson is innocent and that Mayella Ewell and Bob Ewell where lying about the rape. In Chapter 20, Atticus says “No doubt signing it with his left hand and Tom Robinson now sits before you having the oath with the only good hand he has his right hand”. Atticus also says “she was white and she tempted a Negro” he also says “She did something that in our society is unspeakable - she kissed a black man” this was so unspeakable because the black people did not have the rights as the white people because of their skin color and there were more white people at this time.But if Tom Robinson was white then this case may not have been this big. But because they were two different races and they liked each other it made it sort of like a sin in their town and sometimes if two opposite races were married or anything like that they could go to jail.
In Atticus's closing statement he uses Ethos to show the emotional argument in the case and how he felt about it.

One of the things that Atticus says to the people of the court is that “ she tried to put away her evidence of her offence away for her but in this case, she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out her victim of necessity she put him away from her -he must be removed from the presence of the world.” What Atticus is trying to say here is that if Tom was not a black man then this case would not be going on but because he is black there is a case on to prove he really did rape Mayella Ewell. Another thing that Atticus said is that “her father saw it”. What Atticus is trying to say here is that if Bob Ewell saw the rape then why would he not chase after Tom Robinson or call the doctor before he even called the cops. If she had been raped the first thing that Bob should have done would be to call the doctor for the bruises she got during the attack. This case should not even be going on here because both of the people that say that Tom Robinson raped Mayella Ewell where both racist so you can’t really tell if they are really telling the truth about if Tom Robison really do this horrible crime
Atticus’s closing statement was very effective even though he did not win his case. Now the people of Maycomb know that the Ewells cannot be trusted because they are now known as liars. The Ewells even though they won the case everybody in the courtroom knew by

the end of the case that Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell were lying.