Examples Of Pathos In A Letter From Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. one of many great influential speakers wrote a life changing letter after being arrested for peacefully protesting African American rights. While sitting in jail Dr. King received a letter from clergymen questioning his motives and timings for being in Birmingham. In a response Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes a “Letter from Birmingham Jail” vividly expressing physical and emotional purposes for his presence in Birmingham, AL.

Martin Luther King Jr. is renowned as the leader of the great Civil Rights Movement. Throughout his letter from Birmingham Jail, King employs pathos, ethos, and logos to persuade his audience to join forces in order to overcome the physical and mental barriers of segregation.

Dr. King uses pathos heavily throughout the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a way to provide an emotional experience through stories to his audience by using multiple loaded words. King explains to the clergymen that they have never seen “vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim.” By using this story, he allows the audience to imagine their parents and siblings go through such terror as they watch. He describes the mobs as “vicious” which usually has a negative connotation and can be associated with the word “attack”. It is then followed up with the word “mobs” and “lynch”. When the audience hears the word “mobs”, they will imagine a large group of individuals acting without thought. “Lynch” also has a negative connotation and can be

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King’s wrote this letter for eight white clergymen who unapproved of his nonviolent protests for racial equality and segregation. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. King been arrested and is writing to the clergymen about why he felt the need to be protesting also reasons why the clergymen should care. In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. uses persuasion to show that the clergymen and the church should be ashamed of themselves for discontinuing his nonviolent protest. Throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. remains calm, although he is in jail for leading nonviolent protest for equality and ending segregation. King believes that if

In Birmingham, Alabama before April of 1963 there was a lot of prejudice dividing the population. The whites had instilled a mindset they were better and of higher authority than the African Americans. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South, being the worst kind of city for an African American to live in. Martin Luther King Junior was asked to lead a march in Birmingham regarding the injustice. After the peaceful protest King and some of his fellow leaders of the march were arrested and placed in Birmingham jail. King was kept in an old, dirty jail cell that was in solitude. He received only little amounts of food. One day a newspaper was smuggled into King. In the margins King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to two letters written by fellow white clergymen of the surrounding area. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is a timeless document that all students should read.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s , “ Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King responds to the judgments of a group of clergymen , after King 's arrest, by writing a letter explaining why the clergymen 's judgments were wrong. In his letter, king brings very reasonable and valid points that challenge the judgments of the ministers. The main arguments that king makes would be the reason of his existence in Birmingham, white power structure and its racial injustice, and finally why negotiation has brought up impatience and little to no solutions. The overall structure of King’s letter was well organized and the letter delivered valid explanations as to why the clergymen 's judgments were wrong and why it is that action had to be taken in order to grasp the attention needed to settle the conflicts of racial injustice the black community in Birmingham was facing.

Almost immediately, Dr. King tries to plead the case of all African-Americans. He states, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” This appeal is to the hearts of those listen, that even if they are physically free, many parts of life bind them in a similar manner. The allusion of chains weighs heavy on a person’s conscience and is a great example of pathos. While he definitely uses a mixture of rhetorical devices, King uses pathos the most to make his point.

“A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be “clay” and “stop a hole to keep the wind away”, but leave that office to his dust. (Thoreau,Para.6 ,942) Because Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry Thoreau use different tones, appeals, and imagery to show how men have the power to make change. In both “Letter from Birmingham Jail”and “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” one man took action and made a huge change in how we view different races, another man changed our beliefs on government. It all started because one man believed that it was time for a change.

King wrote a letter in 1963 while he was imprisoned in Birmingham jail to eight white religious leaders in response to a “public statement of concern and cautious issued.” The letter was for a request to put a stop on the political action march in Birmingham that King was in charge of. This letter has turned into one of the best works of argument in U.S. history. Due to the logic of this letter being unsavory reputation and usefulness is due to its expressive use of pathos, logos and ethos. King’s use of pathos in his letter not only supports the statement he is making as well as making his argument morally irrefutable.

In “letter from Birmingham jail” Martin Luther King uses pathos and allusion to affectively persuade the audience on the value of civil disobedience. Martin Luther king uses pathos when he states “Its ugly record of police brutally is known in every section of this country. There have been more unsolved bombings of negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any city in this country”. This persuades pathos, because it gets the reader’s attention over what’s going on, it’s the sad truth it makes readers feel bad and ashamed over what’s going on in this country. Martin Luther King uses allusion when he says “Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their thus said the lord far beyond the boundaries of their

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King uses pathos and rhetorical questions to emphasize the emotional and painful experience of civil disobedience. On Pg.6, paragraph 4, “Injustice anywhere is a treat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Pg.8, “Isn’t this like condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?” The textual evidence and rhetorical question shows how King describes civil disobedience as an injustice/justice cause and effect, regardless of their skin color. And the second quote is explaining how a robber took money and his theft was just an evil act. Another example of textual evidence is,

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he emphasizes a number of rhetorical devices, a few of which are: allusions, antithesis, and syntax, to “point out” his ideas. King builds pathos with an audience of eight white clergymen in order to justify his reasons for being in Birmingham. To establish pathos to the eight clergymen of

On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to the eight clergymen while he was incarcerated. Dr. King wrote this letter to address one of the biggest issues in Birmingham, Alabama and other areas within the United States. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” discussed the great injustices that were happening during that time towards the black community. Dr. King wanted everyone to have the same equal rights as the white community, the he went into further details about the struggles that African Americans were going through for so many years, which he felt like it could change.

In Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he uses pathos, and rhetorical questions to convince readers of the value of civil disobedience. “Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality…” (7). In this quote you get a feel for how civil disobedience makes people feel by making us think with our heart more rather than our brain. MLK explains how segregation hurts the victims in a deeper way than what we understand. If anything he kind of brakes it down, educating us if even. “Are you able to endure the ordeals of jails?” (7). This rhetorical question is used to set the message across without bluntly saying it. The message being,

Martin Luther King, Jr. was imprisoned in Birmingham jail because of his contribution and participation in nonviolent demonstrations opposing the segregation championed by the southern leaders. The essay explores his longhand letter in response to civic statement of alarm and threats from the letter written by white religious leaders.