Thursday, October 10, 2013

What are three rhetorically rich passages in To Kill a Mockingbird?Rhetorically rich meaning, detailed descriptions of a character or setting, or...

ATTICUS' SUMMATION.  Atticus'
summation to the jury at the end of the trial of Tom Robinson is one of the highlights
of To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus shows off his oratory skills,
first refuting the evidence presented by the prosecution and then touching on several
important moral issues: racism, pity, intolerance, honest, equality, and God. His
three-page oratory is considered one of the finest court-related passages in all
literature.


readability="10">

"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." (Chapter
20
)



BOO
RADLEY
.  The Finches' mysterious neighbor is a source of wonder and
speculation to Jem, Scout and Dill. Though Boo has never been seen by any of them, Jem
has a good idea of what Boo must look like.


readability="11">

Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall... he
dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were
blood-stained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a
long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his
eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.  (Chapter
1
)



SCOUT'S
VIEW
--THROUGH BOO'S EYES.  At the end of the
story, Scout escorts Boo to his house, never to see him again. Before returning home,
she pauses on the Radley porch and looks out over the neighborhood. It is a view she has
never seen--literally or symbolically--before. She now stands in Boo's shoes, imagining
the past events through his eyes.


readability="6">

Atticus was right. One time he said you never
really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on
the Radley porch was enough.  (Chapter
31
)


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