Letter From Birmingham Jail Pathos

On April 16, 1963, 33-year-old African-American Christian leader Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for protesting against segregation without a permit. His fellow clergymen published poor things about him in the newspaper while he was in jail. He decided to write them a letter back in the margins, to explain the reasons for his protest, and his struggle for freedom. Later that year, during the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech later that year, during the civil rights movement, to inspire the audience to continue fighting for equal rights and not to give up. The speech uses more pathos to develop his ideas, whereas in the “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he relies more on logos to make them think about why he did

Dr.King is trying to convince people who already support the civil rights movement in the speech, but in the letter he is attempting to persuade those who don't. To help the audience understand that they had been through so much and shouldn't give up now, he relied heavily on pathos. He used repetition in phrases like “I have a dream…”(27-39) and “Let Freedom Ring…” (16-24). He does this to emphasize how badly he wants equal rights. He takes let freedom ring from the song ‘My Country Tis of Thee’ to show how blacks weren’t given the rights initially granted. This makes the audience mad because they were robbed of their rights. In addition, he constantly speaks about his ideal futuristic perspective of the new world he hopes to create with their help.In addition, he constantly speaks about his ideal futuristic perspective of the new world he hopes to create with their help. This makes the audience mad because they were robbed of their rights. Yet, he used a different rhetorical analysis in the letter because he wrote it for a different audience and presented in a different

In his speech, he used pathos to provoke strong emotions. There is a use of charged language such as when someone says, “... the quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality” (14). He uses the words ‘battered’ and ‘staggered’ to show they have been beaten down for too long, and need to be ready to fight their way to freedom. Likely, in his letter, he repeated the phrases, “Now is the time…” (26) and “... use time creatively…” (26). To convince the 8 clergymen of his actions, King constantly uses these expressions about time to show they can’t keep waiting around for something to happen. He uses emotion in the two texts to explain they have been fighting and they need to do something