In the newspaper letter “A Protest Against the Burning and Lynching of Negroes” by Booker T Washington, ethos, pathos, and logos are used to show the injustices of African Americans to the reader. To begin, Washington uses ethos to highlight a source that can be trusted. Ethos appeals to the sense of mind of the reader because it uses a credible source. The purpose of using ethos is to show how hypocritical the white people were. Many blacks were mistreated and burned by the white people, but then white men were sent on mission trips to Africa and China to help the blacks over there. “Christian Endeavor Societies and Young Men’s Christian Associations…” People raised money for an organization to send white men across the world to help the …show more content…
blacks. Booker T Washington uses ethos to remind the reader he is standing up for himself above many christians. Also, the association is not living up to what it states about how the white people treat the blacks. Secondly, Washington uses logos to appeal to the reader’s mind.
Logos was used to show how the blacks would be punished for a crime they were only accused of. If an African American was accused of a crime he or she would not get a fair trial to prove himself not guilty. “Protection of our civilization is a fair and calm trial of all people charged with crime and in their legal punishment if proved guilty.” The African Americans would not get a fair trial if they were accused of for a crime. The laws were determined by the white people as well as executions; so there is little possibilities of an accused black man to be pleaded not guilty. Washington uses logos to appeal to the reader’s mind by showing how unfairly treated the blacks were. Lastly, Washington uses pathos to appeal to the reader’s emotions. Pathos was used to show how mistreated and how unfairly the blacks were treated compared to the whites. A few black men and a black woman were burned to death for nothing. Neither were charged for a crime. “These burnings without a trial are in the deepest sense unjust to my race; but it is not this unjust alone which stirs my heart.” Washington uses pathos to connect emotionally with the reader by showing the blacks were brutally burned without a fair trial. The use of ethos, pathos, and logos are illustrated in the newspaper letter “A Protest Against the Burning and Lynching of Negroes” by Booker T Washington to convince the reader to stop the injustices of African
Americans.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a catalogue of personal experiences in order to appeal to the emotions of the reader, also called pathos, by utilizing concrete language, semicolons, and lengthy sentences. He not only entices the emotions of the fellow clergymen he is addressing, but also society in general, attempting to reveal the true situation of the oppressed Negroes during this time in the Civil Rights Movement.
In Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail, pathos, ethos, and logos are vividly expressed throughout it. All three rhetorical devices are vital to the meaning of the letter; the most influential being pathos. MLK takes advantage of the human body’s strong response to emotion. It is illustrated in his appeal to empathy, exercised mainly through gruesome depictions; his call for action to his peers, as shown when he expresses his disappointment in them as they preserve order over justice; and his strategic use of pathos as a supporting effort for both ethos and logos arguments.
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
A human being is a complicated entity of a contradictory nature, where creative and destructive, virtuous and vicious are interwoven. Each of us has gone through various kinds of struggle at least once in a lifetime, ranging from everyday discrepancies to worldwide catastrophes. There are always different causes and reasons that trigger these struggles, however, there is common ground for them as well: people are different, even though it is a truism no one seems to be able to realize this statement from beyond the bounds of one’s self and reach out to approach the Other. The concept of the Other is dominant in Frederick Douglass’s text “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”, for it determines the main conflict and illuminates the issue of intolerance and even blasphemy regarding the attitude of white Americans towards Negroes. The text was written as a speech to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and delivered at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall on July 5, 1852.
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
For example, when Joe Louis won the boxing championship: “Champion of the world. A Black boy. Some Black mother’s son. He was the strongest man in the world” (107). Angelou uses logos in this quote to show the audience that Louis is a champion boxer and that he is a hero to the African society. The society is delighted to hear that Louis is declared champion. Also, segregation is seen as a symbol in this chapter. For example, when Angelou talks about slavery before the fight: “This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help” (106). This quote is also conveying logos because Louis is the person who represent the African American community and if her were to lose, its as if they lost everything and would go back as being slaves. This gives the audience facts about that society back in the late
Lewis’s viewpoint is not without it’s truths. The Harlem renaissance was overseen by a number of intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Dubois. Booker T. Washington‘s, a highly influential speaker of the age, words appealed to both Caucasians and African-Americans. Washington forged an interracial bridge of communication through his unique tactics in the quest for equality. He believed in more subtle ways of gaining equality through hard work, cunning, and humility. He stated, “The wisest among my race understands that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.”(Salley, 15) With this statement, Washington himself denies that this new awakening in equality and arts could be forced,...
Baldwin was successful in telling readers of The New York Times about the disrespect of African American culture by using pathos, ethos, and logos.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Frederick Douglass’ landmark narrative describes the dehumanization of African-American slaves, while simultaneously humanizing them through his moving prose. Douglass shows the dehumanization of slaves through depictions of violence, deindividuation, and the broken justice system. However, Douglass’ pursuit of an education, moving rhetoric, and critique of his own masters demonstrates to the reader that African-Americans are just as intelligent as white people, thus proving their humanity.
When John Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th 1968, he attempted to wake up America from Dr. King’s dream of equality but it was clear that America didn’t want to take steps two steps back, but rather take three steps forward in the fight of civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work, a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” defends his strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism and oppression. Then furthermore states the need and moral responsibility to break unjust laws in a peaceful manner. King supports his argument by comparing himself to not only to the clergy men, but also fellow readers by having an emotional appeal and stating religious examples. The letter’s purpose was to further inform the readers about what was really happening during that time and share another point of view so that anyone that was reading could feel the pain and suffering African Americans had to go through by being just another color skin. King writes in an emotional and formal tone for his audience, the readers of a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and others interested in the topic of
In 1963, inequality was everywhere, but the fight to stop it was stronger than ever. This very year, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and put into jail, fighting for equality. Using this situation to his advantage, he wrote a letter that would change America forever, this was “The Letter From Birmingham Jail”. In this letter Martin Luther King Jr. uses figurative language, such as metaphors and analogies, to appeal to the spectators from an emotional point of view, and he uses an urgent tone to make his text relatable and to show its important so people will want to join in his movement.
“Letter From Birmingham Jail” displays the use of logos to demonstrate the true reasoning foregrounding his argument. As time went on and no change was made, King stated in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights” (275). After all of those years of fighting for their liberation, the African Americans were still segregated, treated overall as lesser beings by the general society. Martin Luther King Jr. uses logical and true facts to represent the large amount of time that they have waited to achieve freedom and justice. He believed action needed to be taken “now.” Society had repressed the rights of African Americans for an excessive extent of time. To emphasize his true message, King illustrated his passion through the use of pathos to demonstrate the suffering of African American people. To fixate on the vital matter of African American suffering, King claimed, “vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers...drown your sisters and brothers...curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail” 275). By stressing the authenticity of the situation, Martin Luther King, Jr. portrayes that all the African Americans can connect on an emotional level, since they are all treated the same. By saying “sisters and brothers”, it shows how King feels about the African American community. He reckons they are as one, collectively suffering. To show how the African Americans are genuinely treated, it can formulate readers to feel sympathy towards the race and overall situation, by using pathos. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses powerful language to compel his audience to expound the effects of
In this essay i will talk about the Cause and effects of Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham how it influenced people and how it opened a door to see through the glass window of African Americans life and how they were treated amongst almost all White men women and Children to show what the hardships they went through and how absurd these laws were “ Men of God do not hide behind these unjust laws if you know what is Morally right”.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.