Wins Scout and Jem’s respect.
So in the five chapters of the trial Atticus is presented with true courage. The chapters leading up to the trial show how personally this trial is affecting Atticus. It is not just another case to him; he is generally worried about how it is going to turn out. We can see that he is worried because even Jem notices,
“Its this Tom Robinson case that’s worryin’ him”
Scout doesn’t notice because she is still young, but Jem notices how much this is affecting his father.
Atticus believes in being totally honest and straightforward with his questions. He comes across as a very clever person with very clever techniques.
His technique through the trial is very different to the other lawyer, Mr Gilmer. The order he interviews the different witnesses’ is very clever as he gets the story across, and the truth comes out which is what he wants.
The first point I would make would be that when he interviews Heck Tate. He repeats the question,
“Did you call a doctor?”
Many times. He does this as a subtle way of getting his point across. He says,
“I just wanted to make sure, judge”
This I would say his another one of his techniques; pretending he is “old” and that he is “forgetful”. He obviously is not, as he is aware of what is going on but he does this to emphasise his point; in this case that a doctor should have been called unless the person, Bob Ewell, has beat Mayella himself. He then repeats the doctor point to other witness’ he questions, emphasising his point to the reader. He comes across as very skilful as he deceives the audience and scout uses a simile to show she doesn’t think he knows what he is doing,
“I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing- but it seemed to me that he’d gone frog-sticking without a light.”
This shows us that Atticus is very talented in being able to trick people into think that he isn’t aware. This could only seem this way to us, though, because we are reading it from Scouts point of view, and through this she is showing her immaturity by not understanding. We know Jem does understand what is going on as the novel says,
“Jem seemed to be having a quiet fit… he whispered, ‘we’ve got him.’”
This again shows scout’s immaturity, as she doesn’t she why at this point. The author and Atticus then deliberately misleads us by making sure that the description of the incident is portrayed as a violent attack and emphasises this point, and on which side of her face so that when Tom Robinson does stand up, it makes it even more dramatic. From all the gasps in the audience, this shows just how good Atticus is at this shock technique.
When Atticus questions Mayella Ewell he uses yet another technique. He makes sure that Mayella is calm. He does not speak sharply to put her at her ease, so she is not on her guard. He is not aggressive but he is still manipulative,
“I won’t try and scare you for a while, not yet. Lets just get acquainted.”
This way he is showing her she can be calm and to just tell the truth but if she doesn’t then he won’t be quiet as pleasant about it. This way after not a lot of persuasion, we are reported in direct speech, about her life. This also is showing how Atticus’ techniques work, as she is revealing her past to him. The way that he questions different witnesses shows Atticus’ knack for his job. He throws his witnesses off track and then when they are off their guard his questions become shorter and quicker. The main thing he wants is to get the truth out, and the way he works he gets what he wants.
In Atticus’ closing speech he uses a lot of rhetorical devices to make the jury and the reader think. He uses repetition, similes and suggestive sentences such as,
“The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is”.
He uses words that imply other things. He uses black and white imagery and repetition to emphasises the fact that a man should not be convicted on his colour of his skin. This part of the novel also shows how affected Atticus is of this case, his last words of his speech,
“In the name of God believe him”
The writer presents Atticus this way as the mouthpiece for the entire novel. She is clearly trying to get across the message that the law is unjust and prejudice. But the message that she did manage to achieve was that even though Atticus tried, he was not able to change the minds of the racist prejudice people in Maycomb. But he did keep the jury out a log time. This means that they were thinking about it, he made them think. So even though Tom Robinson didn’t escape, a small step has still been made to the unjust society, to making it right and honest.
