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Examples Of Pathos In Martin Luther King

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M.L.K use of Logos and Pathos in his Writings

Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for many things. He is a world renowned civil rights activist whose words affected the hearts of many. His marches united people race demanding the rights for all Americans in a peaceful, yet effective manner. His speeches drew crowds of thousands of people, whose lives were affected by his words. But how was Dr. King able to do so much with just words? Simple, it wasn’t just the words but the language he used in them. When Dr. King wants to create emotions in a crowd he used strong, emotional language or pathos. However when Dr. King needs to respond to criticisms he uses logical, well thought out statements or logos. In “Letter From Birmingham Jail” King …show more content…

However, both “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream’ both contain examples of logos and pathos.

When responding to criticisms or try to make a point that helps your cause, the best idea is to use logical responses to prove your point or logos. Martin Luther King uses logos in both “I Have a Dream” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. In “I Have a Dream” Dr. King is giving a speech to almost 250,000 to supports of his movement. …show more content…

Like how Martin Luther King used logos in both “I Have a Dream” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he also uses pathos in both of the too. In King’s famous speech “I Have A Dream” uses a lot of emotional language to stir emotions. Near the beginning of the speech King shows what segregation is like toward the average African American. He does this by comparing discrimination to chains. “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” (King pg. 261) By comparing segregation to manacles and discrimination to chains this shows how restrictive racism truly is by creating an image in your head which shows pathos. You can the average African American citizen bound by the manacles of segregation, separated from others on its own little island. Along with “I Have a Dream”, “Letter From Birmingham Jail” also contains some example of pathos as well. In “Letter From Birmingham Jail” King attempts to explain why he came down to Birmingham from Atlanta in the first place. “Moreover, I am cognizant of the

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Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech shows powerful examples of logos and pathos. His effectiveness relies heavily on his usage of these two ways to explain the pain and suffering of segregation. By him capturing his true life’s reality through pity and credible sources allows him to become successful in attempting to end the racism crisis. King states that, “when our republic was writing the Declaration of Independence, they were making a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights’ of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Logos is the prime example of King using this event of writing the Declaration of Independence.

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In Martin Luther King’s Jr, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” the letter was a persuasive attempt to get Americans to finally see the inequality in the United States of America. Throughout King’s letter, he used various ways of persuasive strategies: pathos, logos, and ethos. But the strongest influential device King used was pathos. Now the word “strongest” has various meanings, but in this instance, it means the most successful.

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Compelling Craft The craft of using words to create a mood or an atmosphere takes great skill to make an audience understand and feel the cause a writer is fighting for. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist from the 1950’s to the 1960’s, wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail. In his letter he made a compelling argument to a group of clergymen, who questioned his quest. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his compelling argument using pathos, ethos, and Kairos by utilizing personal experiences, expressing a moral obligation to help, and his timely involvement for direct action.

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Logos, or logical appeal, uses a clear line of reasoning supported by evidence, such as facts or data. Pathos, or emotional appeal, uses loaded or charged language and other devices to arouse emotions. Using these, he influenced people to follow him. If he would not have spoken up, the world could have ended up still being segregated today. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used pathos and logos in his speech to draw in people so

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1. Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are important aspects in Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The meaning behind Ethos is to appeal to ethics, which means convincing readers of the author’s credibility, meanwhile Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and is used in literature to convince readers of an argument by getting their emotions involved. Last but not least, Logos is the appeal to logic and is used to persuade readers using a force of reason. These terms are important in MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail because the foundation of the letter is built upon ideas of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

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Both of the pieces writing had logos which is a logical appeal and pathos which is emotional appeal.   In this essay I will compare the two pieces of writing that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and how he used logos and pathos in both pieces.     When Martin Luther King Jr. did his I Have a Dream Speech he used two persuasive appeals, one was logical appeal and the other was an emotional appeal.

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Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential African-American activists in American History and was a key participant in the Civil Rights movement, the goal of which was to provide full civil rights to all rights in America. MLK has written many, many speeches and letters in favor of the Civil Rights movement in America, the most famous of them being his legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech and the monumental “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To attempt to gain support for his cause, MLK employs the use of emotional appeals, also known as pathos, and logical appeals, also known as logos, which aid to stir emotion and reasoning in the listener. It is more than obvious that MLK tends to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners with his emotionally charged language essential to his success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses more powerful and plentiful examples of pathos in his literature, examples of which being his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, than logos due to the more powerful emotional connection they carry which can convince his listeners to sympathize with his civil rights movement.

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Upon being imprisoned for marching Dr Martin Luther King wrote a letter to the fellow clergymen of Birmingham, addressing his reasons as to why he committed his “crime”, This letter was widely known as “The Letter of Birmingham”. This letter was very influential and paramount to the cause of civil rights as it spurred up future events that would play essential roles in ending racial segregation in America. Throughout his whole letter, King used Ethos, logos, and pathos to firmly get his message across while adding rhetorical devices such as repetition, metaphors, and biblical references.

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Both pieces have many appeals in common, whether it is pathos, logos, ethos or repetition. In “ I have a Dream speech it contain mostly pathos and ethos because the speech is trying to make the audience emotionally toward the cause. In the speech “ I have a dream” are example of pathos was “ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. ( King,18). The quote was made toward to his children not himself it makes the audience think about their own children and how they wouldn 't want what is happening to king children to their own.

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Unlike King’s letter, he does not use a rhetorical question in his speech. This is because it is a speech and he wants his audience to have an emotional appeal, rather that a logical appeal. He wants to have an emotional appeal becauses he is trying to push his audience to fight for civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. uses rhetorical devices in his

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To begin with Dr. King used logos in his speech to educate the people and give them evidence and logic. Dr. King used both logos and pathos in his speech here is an example of logos used in his speech. “ Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, Signed the Emancipation Proclamation. ”(King 261) is the quote that Dr. King wrote in his speech. He is telling them that the African Americans have been free for five hundred years and that was a great point in history but the African Americans aren’t treated equally or fairly.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was an important figure in gaining civil rights throughout the 1960’s and he’s very deserving of that title as seen in both his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” letter. In both of these writings Dr. King uses logos - logical persuasion - and pathos - emotional appeal - to change the opinions of people who were for segregation and against civil rights. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. MLK uses both ways to gain the attention and agreement of the audience but, he uses pathos not just more, but in a more relatable way in order to appeal to his audience.

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On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a famous speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and freedom, this speech was called “I have a dream.” This speech was focused on ending racism and equal rights for African Americans during the civil rights movement. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. Martin Luther King Jr. displays pathos by targeting the audience’s emotion by talking about his American dream that could also be other peoples too. He shows logos by giving a sense of hope to the people that better things will come in time.

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Bill Bryson’s essay “How You Became You” gives a brief yet entertaining narrative of the unlikeliness of the creation of the human race in order to educate the common man on the miracle of life. The rhetorical strategies used within the essay successfully allow the purpose of this piece to become accessible to the general public. Bryson seamlessly interweaves elements of tone, diction, and rhetorical appeals to ultimately create a piece that successfully achieves his purpose and leaves a lasting impact on the audience, the general populace. The tone of “How You Became You” plays an important role in the effectiveness of the essay.

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Martin Luther uses logos effectively throughout his speech. Dr. King says,“ But one hundred years later, the Negro is not free” ( Luther). The fact is that one hundred year has past still no improvement on the situation. Another example is the analogy “ America has given the Negro people a bad check a check which has not come back marked insufficient funds”( King).He reasons that most people are understanding lack of money. King’s speech was effectively because of how he formatted his speech.

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