Rhetorical Analysis Of Atticus Closing Testimony

Rhetorical Analysis of Atticus’ Closing Testimony As citizens of the United States, we are inevitably entitled to certain rights that cannot be taken away from us. According to the Bill of Rights, Amendment six states, “In all criminal cases, an accused person, for whatever allegations, has the right to a public attorney (if one cannot afford one), a speedy trial, and an impartial jury.” The key word here is “impartial,” meaning fair and nondiscriminatory, but not in this case. When appearing in court, the defendant, plaintiff, and jury are required to recite a specific oath while their right hand is raised. In To Kill a Mockingbird, we have Atticus Finch delivering his famous closing testimony to a group of jurors, whom he wants them to reconsider …show more content…
Influenced by the world around her, five-year-old Lee, grew up just 300 miles away from an incident similar to the one she writes in her novel. “On March 25, 1931, nine black youths were being tried for allegedly raping two white women on the same freight train as them. Captured and tried in Scottsboro Alabama, the all-white jury found all except the youngest boy guilty, and sentenced the rest to death. Having lived in the era of segregation, the south where slavery was an everyday commonplace, and when blacks were commonly being oppress due to the legalization of the Jim Crow laws, Lee sought to enlighten the general public about blacks still not being treated equally, despite the North’s victory in 1865. Maycomb’s community resembles reality, and in reality, in this particular time period, people, predominantly African Americans, are being judged entirely on the color of their skin. All these factors were then incorporated into Atticus’ closing argument, that the symbol of a courtroom is where every man, or woman, are equal, and not decisions shouldn’t be based off of human judgement, but instead