Heroes are always thought to have brightly colored uniforms. Superhumans who fly around the city to save those who are in danger. Martin Luther King Jr. was a hero who wore suits, and saved generations. He fought for those who could not stand for themselves. Like the hero he is, he puts himself in danger. However, he did so through the use of his words. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, daring to speak of the unlawful circumstances, King uses logos, pathos, and ethos, to try to convince the clergymen that his actions were justifiable. Martin Luther King Jr. refers to pathos to justify his actions. Martin Luther King Jr. references the eight white clergymen as, “men of genuine good will and that [their] criticisms are sincerely set forth” …show more content…
uses pathos to appeal to the eight white clergymen’s emotions, and to create a bond of relatability and show they are more alike than they’d like to recognize.. Moreover, Martin Luther King Jr. made use of his ethos as well to assure the eight white clergymen that his words were factual and true, as King, “has the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.” (King 2). Martin Luther King Jr. mentions his positions as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to support the idea that he is one of them, since he has such an honorable position, his credibility is valid. This position allows him to have a higher standard of respect and have more influence on the audience. This position makes him a more well grounded person and he brings this up in hopes the eight white clergymen will take his word seriously and sympathize with his point of view. Equally as important, King uses logos to provide real world examples of the injustice against the colored people in America, showing the eight white clergymen that his actions are for the whole heartily purpose of bringing
In his "Letter," Martin Luther King Jr.'s ability to effectively use pathos, or to appeal to the emotions of his audiences, is evident in a variety of places. More particularly in paragraph fourteen, King demonstrates his ability to inspire his fellow civil rights activists, invoke empathy in the hearts of white moderates, and create compassion in the minds of the eight clergyman to which the "Letter" is directed.
While in jail, Martin Luther King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” one of Dr. King’s longest letters. This letter talked about about why some laws should and be broken and why there was such a need for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King wrote “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity”. This quote is important to the Civil Rights Movement because it emphasizes how many black brothers and sisters were being drowned, beaten, and hated purely on the color of their skin. They were being segregated, one example being “Funtown”, an amusement park for the white children only, Dr. King demanded this to stop. Alongside writing about the Civil Rights Movement, Dr.
In Martin Luther King Junior's Letter from Birmingham Jail, King responds to a public statement made by eight Alabama clergymen about African Americans being too extreme and their actions untimely. In this public statement, made on the twelfth of April, 1963, the clergymen also commended the police on their control of the situation. Four days later, King writes a letter showing his opinion on the statements while he sits in the Birmingham jail for parading without a permit. King carefully uses rhetorical devices to force the clergymen to realize that they are the ones responsible for teaching morals. King uses figurative language to create pathos in his audience of Alabama Clergymen
Argumentation has followed humans from the dawn of time as a way for us to express our ideas and for our ideas to be heard. People naturally obtain the knowledge to persuade others, either backing their opinions by fact or touching others emotionally, from growing up and through their own experiences in life. We can be persuaded by a numerous amounts of different factors pertaining to the argument. There are four different types of strategies in which an argument can be presented and make the argument effective. Martin Luther King is a key example of the utilization of the strategies as he wrote, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Nicholas Carr also portrays the strategies with his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Both authors perfectly
On April 12th, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a peaceful protest in the city of Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in him being arrested and jailed. Later that day eight clergymen responded with the statement “A Call For Unity” in The Birmingham News requesting he ends all of his protests. A few days later, King created a response to the statement in the form of an open letter. In this letter Martin Luther King Jr. develops a well proposed argument in response to the eight clergymen who published the statement. Throughout the letter, King uses rhetorical appeal in order to give the viewer a sense of King’s credibility,his emotions, and also his logic on why he does what he does. King uses ethos by showing common interests, pathos by creating an emotional response to his viewers by justifying his unjust experiences, and logos by using logic from past events that happened in history.
In the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responds to an article by eight clergymen, in which he explains the racial injustice in Birmingham, and reasons why King's organization is protesting for Civil Rights. He introduces himself and his actions at the beginning of his letter. He states that the purpose of his direct action protest is to open the door for negotiation on the Civil Rights. He tries to convince his audience by providing evidence in order to gain his audience to be involved in his movement and support him. He also highlights police actions against nonviolent Negros and crimes against humanity in Birmingham city jail.
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was written to answer a critical "Call For Unity" by a group of clergymen in Birmingham. The clergymen were critical of King for "interloping" in the activities of their city. Dr. King said that he had every right to fight unfairness in the country that he lived in. The letter he wrote, in response to the "Call for Unity", and a statement that he would battle racial inequality wherever it was. The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was the main point in his life. In this letter, he perfectly described his reasons why he felt this way, appealing to logic, emotion, and ethics.
Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929, was well known for his nonviolent movement to bring justice and to an end to the segregation of the people in the United States back in the 1950s. With King being the leader of a peaceful protest, it failed to bring equally to the colored people. Martin Luther King, Jr. was labeled as an “outsider” who was “hatred and violence” and that his actions were “unwise and untimely” from the Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen (clergymen). In response, on the day of April 16, 1963, he wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail to declare and defense his movement was not “unwise and untimely” at all. To analyze his points, King used the powerful literary devices of pathos- use of an emotional appeal.ethos-
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail brings up the idea of acting in a just or unjust manner. In this letter, he’s saying that it’s moral for one to break a law if they feel it is an unjust one. He stated that any law that’s degrading a person should be considered unjust. Even though the technical reason for his arrest was just, since he was parading without a permit, it was an unjust action because it was used to maintain segregation in Birmingham. Since the reasoning for his actual arrest was unjust, he said that it’s okay to take action against it. What matters, however, is that it is done in a loving and direct way. This could be related to Socrates, who was arrested on the grounds for impiety and supposedly corrupting the youth of Athens. However, he made the argument that he was simply exposing them to what he believed was the truth, which was causing no harm other than giving them knowledge they deserved. Socrates
Imagine being beaten, thrown in jail, and denied your basic human rights. This is the exact pain and suffering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went through during his fight for African American rights. Dr. King was an educated African American preacher and civil rights leader. By writing this letter, he is able to show what life was like for an African American at this point in history. King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is effective at convincing the audience that segregation is wrong and that colored people should have the same rights as all others.
Dr. Martin Luther King addressed many topics in, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He answered all the issues that were aimed towards him in a very skillful and well thought out manner. These issues came from, “A Call For Unity”, which was a letter published by eight local clergymen expressing their feelings about what Dr. King was doing. One concern in particular that King did an outstanding job of confronting was that of the clergymen’s anxiety about him breaking the law. King addresses the question of, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” by clarifying that there are just and unjust laws. He also goes on to explain the difference between the two, the effect of unjust laws on the people that they are aimed towards, as
The mighty river flows through the mountains with liquidity and nurture providing life for all those who wish to take a sip from it. Yet the river is powerful in its own force destroying even the largest rocks, crumbling them into small pieces. People may be able to stop the river for a short time or even dry it up but the water always comes back in one form or another, every dam is bound to fail. Some people have been able to harness the power of the river, redirecting the mighty water making it flow in constructive ways. Similar to the river, language is influential. Its true power is not seen by the naked eye but by those who study it, those who use it as their ally in a war of linguistics. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, Birmingham City Jail he is able to use all three rhetorical appeals to prove that demonstrations lead to negotiations and benefit for both sides of an argument.
Through his vivid descriptions, passionate tone, and expressive examples, King’s arguments evoke an emotional response in his readers. King’s use of pathos gives him the ability to inspire fellow civil rights activists, evoke empathy in white conservatives, and create compassion in the minds of the eight clergymen and the rest of his national audience. King seeks to lessen the aggression of white citizens while revitalizing the passion for nonviolent protest in the minds of African Americans. King cautions, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (K...
In 1963, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South, so civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. brought his campaign of nonviolent resistance to Birmingham. After leading a demonstration on April 12, 1963, King was arrested for violating demonstration ordinances. Shortly after, eight white clergymen in Birmingham sent out a public statement claiming that although they support desegregation, they advise against anymore protests advocated by King, stating that the “demonstrations are unwise and untimely” (Carpenter et al,). While in jail, King took an opportunity to continue his campaign by responding to these eight white clergymen. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King uses religious and philosophical allusions to
Journal 1 One pen-pal letter to Zimbabwe is all that was needed to start an everlasting friendship. In the novel I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda, two best friends help each other learn about the others culture and how they live on the other side of the world. Caitlin, a girl from America, has learned that Martin, a poor boy in Zimbabwe, is having trouble staying in school and needs help with the issue of money. Caitlin has helped Martin get into school and she has helped his family survive. I have learned a lot from reading Caitlin and Martin’s book.