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Pathos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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The 1950s was an era of great conflict. A group of Americans protested against inequality and injustice during this time. African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for years. When imprisoned for “parading without a permit,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes a letter in response to eight clergymen using ethos, pathos, and logos to defend the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. Dr. King starts by using ethos to reinforce his views in the letter. He mentions, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.” (King 1). With that being said, he established his credibility to a greater extent. In the first few paragraphs, he uses history to establish his credibility. By quoting bible verses he conveys to the clergymen that he is an ethical holy man. He demonstrates his wisdom by quoting many historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Socrates, etc. …show more content…

King uses pathos to persuade his readers. He uses a personal experience to get the readers to feel sadness and pity. “…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park […] Funtown is closed to colored children…” (King 2). A child is always going to be a child no matter what their color of skin is. Seeing a child cry is the worst, it’s a weakness. He also mentions the horrible behaviors of police towards blacks. “…hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty…” (King 2) With that being said, these cruel treatments of African Americans and dreadful events reinforce Dr. King’s immediate demand for

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In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King’s proposes plenty of arguments and claims using Pathos, which is practiced by using emotions or values of a certain group. Dr. Kings letter is written as a response to those who are doubting him and naming his cause “unwise and Untimely”. Immediately in the first sentence Martin Luther King says “While confined here in the Birmingham city jail”, using an emotional appeal for sympathy to shame them for naming his work “unwise and Untimely”, in terms where he is meaning to say “how dare you say that”. A stronger example of the pathological way of engaging King’s reader is paragraphs twelve and thirteen as he explains the feeling of being oppressed and being segregated due to their skin

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Dr martin Luther king jr is an influential figure in civil rights. While in jail for peacefully protesting he received a letter telling him that protests are "unwise and untimely. " In response to this, he wrote a letter from jail. He uses ethos pathos and allusion to establish himself as a credible leader.

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On April 16, 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, a persistent civil rights leader, addressed 8 white clergymen on the way they responded to the protests from nonviolent Negros. He supports this claim by first emphasizing that all of what is going on is part of their heritage and how everyone has rights, then by telling them breaking the law and standing up for what they believe in embodies the American spirit, and finally indicates the protesters are heroes and they are doing what they can to defend themselves and show others their side of what is going on. Through King’s use of tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools he effectively persuades the clergymen and the people of the U.S, to fathom what is happening everyday around them and

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong leader in the Civil Rights movement, the son and grandson of a minister, and one heck of a letter writer. As he sits in a cell of Birmingham Jail in 1963, he responds to criticism from eight white clergymen. Though this letter was intended for the judgemental and condescending men of high faith, his response touched the hearts and minds of the entire U.S. population, then, and for years to come. In his tear-jerking, mind-opening letter, King manages to completely discredit every claim made by the clergymen while keeping a polite and formal tone. Metaphors, allusions, and rhetorical questions are used in the most skillful way to support his argument and ultimately convince his audience of the credibility behind his emotional, yet factual, claims.

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The line “As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise.” connects with the audience by causing them to sympathize with the feeling of being let down. King best creates an emotional connection with his audience when he describes how they have been treated in society. The African-Americans were assaulted, cursed at, segregated, given degrading names, and hopeless. The line “…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children,…” particularly creates an emotional impact.

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