Martin luther king jr.

In the “Letter from Birmingham jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. refers to the clergyman in a

very proper and civilized manner. In this letter, Dr. King expresses his thoughts in a clear and

reasonable tone that makes the reader understand his beliefs about the civil rights of blacks.

This letter is very effective because it provides very reasonable logic , provides a lot of

emotionalexamples which make the reader have a better view, and provides proofs that give

credibility to his words , of course, thanks to his very good use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

Dr. king Starts with ethos. Ethos refers to the trustworthiness or credibility of the writer

or speaker. An audience is more likely to be persuaded by someone who they trust, If the

audience trusts thereader, then the reader expects that what the reader is saying true.

Dr. King’s use of ethos is always appropriate, without showing disrespect toward the

clergymen. A very clear and good example is at the beginning of this letter when he says, "My

dear fellow Clergymen". In this simple phrase, the attitude and position that Dr. King takes,

showing him as a respectful man and withvalues. It is fundamental while writing ethos to give

trust to the reader, and Dr. King do it it very well. Also, at the beginning of the letter when he

introduces himself to the clergymen and says "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 and Georgia". With thisway Dr. king introduces himself, provides

more credibility to his words because now he has shown he is a skilled, educated, and

competent person.

After, Dr. King continues with the use of pathos. Pathos appeals to emotion. It can be

translated as the ability to lead the audience to the desired emotional state. Basically consists

of connecting emotionally with the audience,showing for example, narratives of emotional

circumstances or vivid descriptions, of course with an emotional tone mode to make the

readers accept the message. In the "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Dr. King's ability to

effectively use pathos, or to appeal to the emotions of his audiences is very notable in many

paragraphs, but more particularly in paragraph fourteen where Dr. Kingdemonstrates his

ability to inspire his fellow civil rights activists, invoke empathy in the hearts of white

moderates, and create compassion in the minds of the readers. In almost all fourteen

paragraph Dr. King talks about the way black people live and gives details of how it feels being a

black person and see other black persons being discriminated against and rejected by whites

andthe same religious authorities. For example when Dr. King says, " It is easy for those who

have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, wait. But when you have to see vicious

mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim." In

that same manner, Dr. King keeps describing discriminatory acts until the end of the paragraph

where Dr.King concludes with these words, "I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate

and unavoidable impatience." Dr. King didn’t need to say anything more to get to the readers’

hearts and clarify why black people were fighting for their rights.

Finally, Dr. King’s use of logos. Logos, as the name says is based on logic. Logos is the

logic or the reasoned part of the argument.Its purpose is to make believe that the argument

presented by the writer is true, for example, by providing logical reasons, literal and historical

analogies, definitions, citations from experts and authorities, factual or data and statistics. If the

reader uses adequately his logos, the presented argument will have more credibility. Dr. King

appeals to logos in paragraph twenty-two...