Examples Of Pathos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

The main intended audience is the 8 clergymen from Birmingham who wrote King a strongly-worded and disrespectful letter regarding his arrest from protesting on Easter of 1963. You know that this letter is being addressed to the clergymen because the first three words in the whole letter are “Dear Fellow Clergymen”. King includes the word “fellow” instead off “sir” to, as Michael Osborn says in his essay, “Rhetorical Distance in “Letter from Birmingham Jail””, “Thus, from the outset, King asserts his identity and claims his seat at their table, whether welcome or not.”(26). King wants to be at an equal level with the clergymen, he wants to be respected. The eight clergymen were targeted as the main audience because, initially, they are the ones who started the conversation between them and King by writing the first letter. This reader is expected to understand where the author, Dr. King, is coming from and also to open their eyes to the reality of

In these two pieces of writing, we have the speech and the letter showing examples of logos and pathos. A logo is using reasoning supported by evidence, such as facts, data, or expert testimony, while pathos is using loaded or charged language and other devices to stir up emotions. In both pieces of writing we see several examples of both. King’s use of both waver from time to time. In the letter there is more pathos and in the speech there is more logos.There is a reason for this, he doesn’t just slap whatever looks good on paper, he knows what works best for whatever he’s doing to get his point across.

In the story “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, he uses pathos and repetition to reinforce his arguments for civil disobedience. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” page 7 of MLK letter. The form of pathos is persuasive by that MLK uses emotions by the painful experience in getting freedom. MLK gets motivated to do this by the fact that he is tired of segregation in the United States and wants everyone to be equal. He hopes that by demanding freedom, everyone would be equal.

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.

Throughout A Letter From Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. reveals many challenges facing the African American community regarding criticism and racism and that the ultimate goal is to bring equality to America. He provides not only his own option, but reasons to support his thoughts. By finding the ethos, pathos, and logos in the letter, it is clear that this is written so that the form, influences the content of the piece. He wrote this in an honest, logical, and peaceful manner, but wanted to get his point across in a non-violent way in hopes to change people’s views on racism.

King transcends both the context of present struggle and his listeners. Unlike them, he mk understands the historical situation… he instructs them in the grand strategy of the mmmp Birmingham movement, just as any kindly teacher might attempt to cure the ignorance mmm and elevate the understanding of novice students (Osborn 28). Martin Luther King, Jr. is an expert on the struggle and obviously had the best intentions of his readers in mind while writing. This makes him both reliable and personally involved in spreading the campaign. In his “Letter,” Mr. King refuses to be put in a box, despite the location of his composition. He represents himself as a moral compass; righteous without being arrogant. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s tone and expression are an extravagant part of the letter’s ‘persuasive appeal’ (Leff, Utley 39). Mr. King himself plays an impressive part in making “Letter From Birmingham Jail” extremely effective.

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

Martin Luther King was a major figure in the civil rights movement. An expert orator and writer, he helped propel the movement forward. Through his masterful use of Logos and Pathos in “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he displays his exceptional skills as a sption. One example of Dr. King’s use of pathos is when he says “We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.” He is trying to have the audience imagine the feeling of exhaustion, and how they would feel if they were told they were not allowed to find a place to sleep.

On April 3rd, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr began the Birmingham Campaign. This was a nonviolent campaign which consisted of coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. MLK Jr was arrested because of this campaign on April 12th. On the same day that MLK was arrested he received a newspaper from an ally of his, this newspaper had an article about a statement from 8 white clergymen. The statement made by this men said that MLK and his methods were wrong which then provoked King to respond.

The Letter from Birmingham Jail is a letter that explains the events that occurred when clergymen criticized Martin Luther King Jr.’s entrancing the Birmingham. Mr. King writes this letter to the clergymen who says racial discrimination was in control by the law administrators and should not be changed by Mr. King or any other outsider that are not white race. Mr. King’s statement letter addresses that he wants to form and restore an organize community where all human race can fight and have equal rights. I will explain how Mr. King used the literal tools as ethos, logos, pathos and others to clearly show the content, mood and situation of writing the letter and to respond to the clergymen’s enquiries.

“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 writes, “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sister” (83). In this section King uses an anecdote to appeal to pathos to support his argument because he describes the mistreatment of the black community in such a way where the reader can feel the pain the black community felt. It triggers the emotions of the audience, allowing them to understand the urgency and desperation the black community has. This emphasizes his central claim that action needs to be taken now to protect the black community. To add on, King also uses pathos when he discusses about the unfair treatment of the black community done by the police.

For example, when King says “When you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society”, he is portraying how racial injustice is constantly sinking America and its citizens into dangerous circumstances. His main goal here is to convince the Clergymen to see into the eyes of a African American and get a real sense of oppression they felt at the time, often at the expense of white entitlement. King demonstrates his ability to inspire his fellow civil rights activists, raise empathy in the hearts of white conservatives, and create passion in the minds of the eight Clergymen to which the letter is directed. While King uses this metaphor to make one of the stronger points in his argument, it is clear that within it he is appealing to pathos or the reader’s own sensibilities. The images of black men suffering at the hands of the lynch mobs are so strong and vivid that they cannot help but provoke a sense of empathy and shock over such conditions. In addition, he does a wonderful job describing the atrocities of racism and prejudice in his description of fellow black men being smothered in an “airtight cage of poverty”. To the reader, this brings to mind the thought of being constrained within a way of life that is inescapable because of racism. Furthermore, as

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.

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was thrown into jail due to participating in non-violent protests against racism and segregation in the city of Birmingham. There, he wrote the famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” which became one of the most important letters in history of the American civil rights movement (Colaiaco 1). The open letter covered many points to King’s arguments for why the marches, protests, and other non-violent actions were necessary and justifiable. James Colaiaco analyzes the key components to the letter and the different ways Martin Luther King, Jr. used literary devices to form a well written argument.