Atticus Finch Ethos Pathos Logos

In the speech of Atticus Finch from To Kill the Mockingbird, the rhetorical devices: ethos, pathos, and logos are used to persuade the jury of the equality of human beings in and out of the courtroom despite ethnic differences to prove the innocence of Tom Robinson. To set the scene, Tom Robinson, an African American man, had been accused of beating and raping Mayella Ewells during the 1930s. The case is difficult to argue due to the amount of prejudice the all white jury held during the Great Depression against African Americans. However, Atticus Finch, an acclaimed lawyer assigned to the case, used the bias the public held, a clear weakness in this circumstance, as an argument point to win the case. For example, Atticus used the appeal logos to illustrate the assumption of the public to believe Mayella due to the
The parallelism of the word some and isolation of the words “black or white” emphasizes his point of equality by showing how logically that if Tom Robinson was white, he would still have the capability of beating Mayella Ewells. In addition, Atticus argues using logos to illustrate the outlandish assertion and reasoning the public had made based on Tom Robinson’s ethnicity by showing how their reasoning was flawed since it wasn’t logically possible for all African Americans to be guilty of a crime. To verify his claims as well as tap into the jury’s emotions, Atticus Finch says: “A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up”(Lee 204). The diction of the word sound and the comparison with the justice of the court was used as pathos to conjure up feelings of guilt among the jury with their biased decision to convict Tom Robinson based on his ethnicity. In addition Atticus addressing the court as moldable suggested by “[the court] is only as sound as the men who make it up” illustrates