The Closing Argument

Watch the clip and read Atticus' closing argument below for examples of ethos, logos, and pathos. Then, in the comment box, EXAMINE and EXPLAIN one example of ethos, logos, pathos and the effect this appeal should have on the audience.  200 word minimum.

Evaluate your response.

Atticus Finch delivers his Closing Argument at the Trial of Tom Robinson

Atticus paused, then he did something he didn’t ordinarily do. He unhitched his watch 
and chain and placed them on the table, saying, “With the court’s permission—” 
   Judge Taylor nodded, and then Atticus did something I never saw him do before or 
since, in public or in private: he unbuttoned his vest, unbuttoned his collar, loosened his 
tie, and took off his coat. He never loosened a scrap of his clothing until he undressed at 
bedtime, and to Jem and me, this was the equivalent of him standing before us stark 
naked. We exchanged horrified glances. 
   Atticus put his hands in his pockets, and as he returned to the jury, I saw his gold 
collar button and the tips of his pen and pencil winking in the light. 
 “Gentlemen,” he said. Jem and I again looked at each other: Atticus might have said, 
“Scout.” His voice had lost its aridity, its detachment, and he was talking to the jury as if 
they were folks on the post office corner. 
  “Gentlemen,” he was saying, “I shall be brief, but I would like to use my remaining time 
with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of 
complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to 
the guilt of the defendant. To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This 
case is as simple as black and white. 
 “The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that 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. The defendant is 
not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is. 
 “I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does 
not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake, which she has done in an effort 
to get rid of her own guilt. 
 “I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no 
crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so 
severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the 
victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full 
well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code 
she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent 
reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She did 
something every child has done—she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from 
her. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her 
victim—of necessity she must put him away from her—he must be removed from her 
presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. 
 “What was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put 
Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was her daily reminder of what she did. 
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, but a strong young Negro man. 
No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her 
afterwards. 
 “Her father saw it, and the defendant has testified as to his remarks. What did her 
father do? We don’t know, but there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella 
Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left. We do 
know in part what Mr. Ewell did: he did what any God-fearing, persevering, respectable 
white man would do under the circumstances—he swore out a warrant, no doubt signing 
it with his left hand, and Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with 
the only good hand he possesses—his right hand. 
    “And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel 
sorry’ for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people’s. I need not 
remind you of their appearance and conduct on the stand—you saw them for 
yourselves. The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb 
County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical 
confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen 
would go along with them on 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. 
    “Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a lie I 
do not have to point out to you. 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. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never 
done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman 
without desire.” 
    Atticus paused and took out his handkerchief. Then he took off his glasses and wiped 
them, and we saw another “first”: we had never seen him sweat—he was one of those 
men whose faces never perspired, but now it was shining tan. 
    “One more thing, gentlemen, before I quit. Thomas Jefferson once said that all men 
are created equal, a phrase that the Yankees and the distaff side of the Executive 
branch in Washington are fond of hurling at us. There is a tendency in this year of grace, 
1935, for certain people to use this phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions. The 
most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education 
promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious—because all men are created 
equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of 
inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have 
us believe—some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity 
because they’re born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies 
make better cakes than others—some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope 
of most men. 
    “But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one 
human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the 
equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That 
institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the 
humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have 
their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great 
levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal. 
     “I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system—
that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than 
each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a 
jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you gentlemen will 
review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore 
this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty.” 

In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson.