Ethos Pathos Logos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

In King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” addressed to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison, he uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the letter and language that invokes a sense to the clergymen's hypocrisy. Once he points out the gesture of hypocrisy, the argument for the protests becomes wide as he shifts the tone in the letter and starts to include a larger audience that would be known to agree with him directly. Richard P. Fulkerson, an Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of Composition in East Texas State University explains more clearly in one of his quarterly journal speeches that King's “letter was designed apparently as a refutative response to the clergymen.” Furthermore, Fulkerson states that

King then uses the appeal of pathos by explaining that he was in Birmingham not only because he has “organizational ties,” but more basically, he is “in Birmingham because injustice is here.” This portrays a strong message to the clergymen that he has the credibility on the matter of injustice. Moreover, the use of logos should be observed when King writes that “it is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative” (Rottenberg 813). The phrasing of this statement indicates that King was sympathetic towards the “Negro community,” and that he believes that the “white power structure” was at fault. Henceforth, King uses a type of language that points out the hypocrisy of the Anglo society by challenging the biblical and cultural values that the men claimed to believe

By the end of the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King broadens his scope and its corresponding language to include his most important audience, the African-Americans themselves. While the beginning of letter addresses the white audience in white terms, his latter part presents a complete shift on the level of language and argument. As King writes with the powerful use of imagery in the letter, “you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and frown your sister and brothers at whim; you have seen hate-filled policemen kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity” (Rottenberg 815) it shows that the language obviously becomes far more simplified but portrays the strength and power of raw emotion. That is exactly what King wanted in order to make the audience feel the strong emotion and pain he felt and justify his cause of writing this letter in response to the clergymen. Henry Louis Gates, Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E.