Ethos: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

To really understand the ethos in the film of To Kill a Mockingbird, one must really go back to the origins of the the book from which the story originated.  The original book was published in 1960 by a woman named Nelle Harper Lee, better known as simply Harper Lee.  Harper Lee grants herself the greatest ethos by writing the story based on her own life as she experienced.  The setting was based in Alabama, like her own hometown; and, every character was based on people she knew in her own life.  Her personality lined up perfectly with that of Scout, her brother was four years younger than her like Jim, and her father was a lawyer who defended black men in racial trials, such as the Tom Robinson case.  Some sources mentioned that she also used the 1931 Scottsboro Trials as inspiration for the trial, as she was also alive during those cases at the same time as Scout in the book and film.  It would be very difficult to doubt and question the facts written by a woman who wrote about the life she lived and the lessons she learned from it.  In this way, Harper Lee plays the ultimate ethos card through her story.  The picture to the left shows Harper Lee and actor Gregory Peck, who played Atticus Finch in the film.  This picture shows that Harper Lee played an active role in the production of the film to ensure that it was being made in a way the best fit with her vision and the story that she wanted to tell. – Joshua Davis