To Kill A Mockingbird Rhetorical Analysis

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Lastly Lee completes her claim with repetition to further appeal to her audience. throughout Atticus’s closing remarks she refers to Mayella Ewell as “she.” Strongly taking the blame off of Tom Robinson and subtly placing it on Mayella’s and her guilt. “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, but a strong young Negro man. “ (pg 231) Lee is magnifying two main points, “she” and “negro.” She is specifically emphasizes these two simple words, because each of them distinguishes two important parts of the argument. In doing so, she achieves making it seem Mayella is truly responsible, the crime in question is actually minor, and displays the idiocracy in the idea of there being a more superior race. …show more content…
“ … the assumption- the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.” (pg 232) In the quote, Lee openly shows the corrupted mind of man. The repetition of words, “assumption” “all Negroes”, in particular are largely responsible for the strength this quote has on the rest of the closing remarks. By placing emphasis on the word assumption she is displaying the fact that there is not one iota of evidence proving that one race is more superior than the other; she shows that everything that the audience had based their hatred off of was not proven in any way. It was only assumed. Additionally the emphasis on “ all Negroes” disproves all claims the audience would use against them. She is showing though one man may not be trustworthy, moral, or truthful, but that does not set the standard for all other men associated with