https://youtu.be/HOocTXKPVVU

Atticus Finch,To Kill a Mockingbird

Context: In this scene, Atticus Finch gives his closing arguments in defense of Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a young white woman.

His argument:

To begin with this case should never have come to trail the state has not produced one iota of medical evidence at the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. There is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left, and Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand, he possesses his right. I had nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at state which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt now I say guilty gentlemen because it was guilt that motivated her. She is committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society a code so severe that whoever breaks it as hounded from our midst is unfit to live with, she must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense Tom Robinson a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her daily reminder of what she did, now what did she do she tempted a negro. She was white and she tempted a negro, she did something that in our society is unspeakable. She kissed a black man not an old uncle with a strong young Negro man no code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the state with the exception of the exception of the sheriff of Macon County have presented themselves to you gentlemen through this court and the cynical confidence the bear testimony would not be doubted confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption the evil assumption that all Negroes by all Negroes are basically immoral beings all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber and which is in itself gentlemen a lie, but I do not need to point out to you, and so a quiet humble respectable Negro who has had the un mitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman has had to put his word against two white peoples that the Shrimant is not guilty but somebody in this courtroom is. Now gentlemen in this country our, our courts are the great level has in our courts all created equal uh. No idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and at our jury system that is no ideal to me that is a living working reality. I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard come to a decision that restore this man to his family. In the name of God, do your duty, and the name of God believe Tom Robinson.

Your Task

1.Once you have watch video, just get a sense of the main idea of the speech. What is the speaker trying to convince the audience to believe?

2.Can you identify;

a.Pathos which includes specific example and explain how they appeal to emotion?

b.Logos which includes specific example and explain how they appeal to LOGIC?

c.Ethos which includes specific example and explain how they appeal to credibility?