Aristotle's Ethos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Aristotle is known for his creation of the analysis of rhetoric through ethos, pathos, and logos. I believe that in paragraph twenty-two the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King builds ethos from and his cause amongst his readers. He does so by using examples from history.

According to Aristotle ethos is the credibility of the speaker and there are things that can aid in building ethos:” good sense, goodwill, and good moral character (Rhet., pg. 60).” In paragraph twenty-two of King’s Letter he proves good sense by using examples of past situations similar to the one our country was in at that time. “We should not forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was

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