Gentleman. I’m not here today to persuade you to believe me but to present you with a hypothetical theory. In my theory, Miss Mayella is a young woman who was constantly beaten by her father, had to take care of all the younger siblings. Mr. Robinson was the only person that was kind to her and helped her with chores from time to time. Then Miss Mayella did something that this society is not allowed which is falling in love with a black man. On that night, Miss Mayella let all the children go to the town and plan to seduce Mr. Robinson. But Mr. Robinson, a man that is loyal to his wife, rejected Miss Mayella seduction and made her went mad. At the same time, Mr. Ewell went back home and caught what she was doing. He couldn’t accept the truth that her daughter was in love with a black man, so he’s started to beat up his daughter. Mr. Robinson ran away with frightening and guilt. To maintain their family’s dignity, Mr. Ewell decided to make up a lie and blame all these to Mr.Robinson. Indeed, it’s easy to destroy a black man’s reputation, but it’s hard to admit their own mistake.
Despite the fact that Mr.Ewell gave us a coherent story, the evidence that he provided was clearly contradicted to each other. The most contradictable fact is that Mr.Tate claimed, “she was beaten around the head”(TKAM 1:10:31-1:10:32). While Mr. Robinson obviously doesn’t even have the ability to accomplish this. He has sworn to God that he is a right handed man that had no use of his left arm. A man with only one arm could never make bruise all around Miss Mayella ’s neck. But as an ambidextrous person, it was easy for Mr. Ewell to do so.
I believe most of you sitting here today have family that is waiting for you to come home. Mr. Robinson, although has a different skin color is still a human being. An innocent human that has a wife and an unborn child in her wife’s belly. I trust a man that loves his wife so much would never do such unfaithful thing to her. If anyone in this court made an unfair decision, this man’s wife wouldn’t have anyone to take care of her and the children would never be able to see his father in the face. He’s children gonna grow up knowing his father is a sin man that was put to death. Gentleman, I urge you to avoid thinking about any discriminated ideas about races, skin colors and decide carefully with evidence. Think of this man as a human being, as a husband, as a father, not a person with different skin color. Now I have presented you with the truth, I trust you would make the right decision.
Work Cited
To Kill a Mockingbird. Robert Mulligan. Universal Studios. 1962. Web. 9 September 2017.
This closing statement appeals to pathos by making the audience having a emotional response to the fact that Tom Robinson is wrongly accused. The writer uses the emotion that every juror would have towards his family, so that they can feel guilty about wronging Tom Robinson. The writer also states that the it is racism coming in the way for all the jurors to make the wrong decision.
If I were one of the jurors, I would definitely feel bad about putting Tom Robinson into jail, but I do not think there is enough appeal to logos in the writer’s statement to make me trust that Tom Robinson has done nothing wrong. I believe that appealing to logos is the most important part in the court because the final decision should be more logic-involved rather than emotion-involved. The assumption the writer has made in the beginning of the statement has little evidence to support it, therefore there could be more evidence to support it. For example, the writer can quote the Tom Robinson’s statement, or by stating the fact that Mr. Ewell is left-handed and Miss Mayella was clearly beaten up by a left-handed person.