Rhetorical Appeals In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Authors can best evoke empathy from readers by appealing to emotions, credibility, and logic because appealing to these aspects causes readers to relate and empathize with the topics that the author presents in a piece of writing. The empathy that manifests within readers can cause them to change their perspective on the world or inspire action.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee, chooses to use rhetorical appeals to gain empathy from the reader. In the beginning of the novel, Atticus Finch takes on a controversial case in which he defends an African-American man against rape charges. Atticus clarifies to his brother, “‘But do you think I could face my children otherwise? You know what’s going to happen as well as I …show more content…
Toward the end of the novel, Atticus concludes his defense of Tom Robinson by making a powerful but controversial statement to the jury. Atticus claims, “‘You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men,’” which shows that Atticus believes it’s clear that race isn’t the determining factor that causes people to be immoral or untrustworthy (Lee 204). In this quote, the author appeals to readers’ logic because Atticus states that anyone can lie and have malicious intent regardless of race as if it is an obvious fact. This evokes empathy from readers because they are capable of relating to the idea that being unprincipled is a general characteristic of human beings and not a trait of any particular race since they can see that people around them of any race can be immoral. The empathy that readers feel can enable them to understand the world better by helping them realize that anyone can be righteous and anyone can be sinful. In the ending of the novel Scout, Atticus’s daughter, recounts the plot of a book called The Gray Ghost, but starts to incorporate experiences from her own life into her summary. Scout says drowsily, “‘An’ they chased him ‘n’ never could catch him ‘cause they didn’t know what he
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