Ariel Medina Professor Darvay English 1302 25 February 2023 King the Rhetorical Genius Martin Luther King was a man who knew how to speak to people and not just with politeness or manners. When he gave speeches he was able to deliver a message that would leave a lasting impact. Not only was Martin Luther King able to reach people in his speeches but also through his writing one for example being his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The most persuasive part of the letter is paragraph eleven. In paragraph eleven, King is not only able to invoke sympathy from others but also is able to clearly explain to the readers why they are beginning to strive towards achieving equality. Early on in paragraph eleven, Martin Luther King is able to use logos …show more content…
He can establish his character so the clergymen can see that he is doing these movements because he is also affected by the unjust treatment the colored community faces. King is also able to establish his character to other readers of his letter who may not be of color but may think like the clergymen do and find it hard to understand why they are doing this. This is where King’s experience helps others see that they can trust him and what he is saying because he has suffered along with …show more content…
In paragraph eleven when King is explaining his experiences and things he has seen, he describes the feeling of getting “tongue twisted” and how his “speech stammers” when he has to explain to his young daughter “why she can’t go to the public amusement park” because it is “closed to colored children” and now she has tears in her eyes (6). This can invoke a sad feeling because he is explaining a situation where he has to explain to his young child that since she is of color, she is unable to go to an amusement park. Furthermore, King explains how the young child begins to unconsciously develop “a bitterness toward white people” (6). King also includes a statement where he explains where his young son asks “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean? (6)” After reading these statements, readers can have an upset feeling because they can see that segregation is affecting the younger children and it is because of segregation that young children are beginning to grow up despising the other
Being an appeal to pathos, King uses descriptors to show the emotions he is having. King is saying enough is enough the South has been a state nothing getting done and it should change. He says he loves the South, but certain people have come in and “bogged down” the area with agendas that do not flesh well with the rest of the South. He is tired of speakers and talkers that do not follow up their speeches with action or even conversations. King just wants Southerners to start having conversations and working together to resolve issues instead of being told and forced to
Angelina Holmes March 7, 2023 3rd Unit 3 writing task In” Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I have a dream” Martin Luther King Jr., utilizes logos, sympathy, and ethos to help his debates. Although he gets his point across fairly he also uses different techniques as well. This is mainly because in “I have a dream” he was making statements to get his point across While in “Letter to Birmingham” he was defending himself and his organization. Dr.King basically is directing both passages at different people.
Logos is the use of facts and logic, often appealing to a person’s intellect and mind. King uses logos to sway the clergymen to his side of the argument surrounding racial injustice. For instance, King compares America to other nations to show how behind America is in the fight for equality: “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (King 582). This is a clear instance of King using logic and reasoning to persuade the clergymen. Another example of King using logos is when he notes that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was released on April 16th 1963 in response to 8 prominent clergymen in Alabama. These clergymen had criticized Doctor Martin Luther Jr. about being a radical extremist for the civil rights movement. Also, the clergymen tried to leverage the black community to disassociate themselves with the protest MLK was having. They claimed his protest were untimely and meant to incite violence amongst the patrons of Alabama and further polarize whites and blacks. In response, Dr. King devises a writing masterpiece with this letter from the Birmingham Jail by utilizing ethos, logos, and pathos to express his frustration with the white moderates.
In the “ I Have a Dream “ speech by Martin Luther King Jr. he appeals to the audience using logos to give logical reasoning about
King persuades the clergymen to accept the black American’s strive for independence by pulling on America’s heartstrings and its love for freedom. Using this idea of independence, he tells the clergymen that it is time for black Americans to attain freedom, similar to America’s path of sovereignty from Britain’s cruel control many years ago. Essentially, King expresses meaningful, yet tragic events and injustices along with common desires between black and white people to explain the circumstances as to why he advocates for
In both the speech and the letter, Dr. King was very inspirational. His use of pathos helped push his point across to everyone. His use of pathos inspired people that weren't stuck in their ways or that weren't ready for change. The overall message Dr. King tried to spread was segregation needs to stop, and he tried to do this by arousing strong feelings and emotions in people through his use of charged language.
Equally important, King brings upon feelings of sympathy and compassion to convince the clergymen what they're going through is what no one should ever have to go through. To be specific, King states “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” and “when you … explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised… and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children”. These examples make the clergymen imagine the struggles and pain they are put through just because they don't have the same color of skin as others. His goal
In his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King addresses the issues of racism and inequality in America during the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout the letter, King references a variety of historical events and figures to support his arguments and convey his message. In this essay, we will examine the effectiveness of King's references in terms of how effectively they convey his message of the need for civil rights and racial equality. By analyzing King's use of historical figures, events and religious allusions, we will explore three different ways King expresses his message and to what extent these different things change many individuals' lives and the way they look at things differently now due to King's statements in his essay. Through this analysis, we will gain a deeper understanding of King's message and the powerful rhetorical strategies he used to convey it.
King’s presentation of Logos is amazing, he shows his fellow clergymen two opposite sides to the community, one that is pure satisfaction and the other that is full of hate. King is telling his audience that he could have stayed neutral in the situation and allowed the Black Nationalist groups to take charge, but he didn’t. Logos isn’t just present in King’s letter, it is expected since King is writing a letter justifying his
King was logos because he used logic to support him and with that logic he was able to contradict the clergymen's arguments. The logos used in Dr. King’s letter fulfilled their purpose by stopping the clergymen right in their tracks. “Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action could be delayed no longer” (09) Here he talks about how him and the other protesters are accused of not being patient but they actually had postponed the non-violent protests for quite a while, waiting for any new changes but everything was still the same. This helped Dr. King convince the clergymen to support him because it contradicts the claim that the clergymen had made which clearly stated that Dr. King and his supporting protesters were not patient enough to wait and see if there were any new changes.
One of the most effective rhetorical appeals that was used in this passage was logos and pathos. Martin Luther King jr. wished for immunity and unity between the races. While he attended jail, he determined to write a letter to the ministers showing how he perceives this local issue. Using emotional and persuasive writing to attach the ministers to the letter, giving them the perspective of how Martin Luther King saw it.
A majority of the 13 and 14th paragraph contain a sorrowful emotion. King uses such heart wrenching examples such as when he talks about mothers and fathers getting lynched and brothers and sisters getting drowned. These examples are definitely the most persuasive technique in the 13 and 14th paragraph as you would imagine your father, mother, sister, and brother suffering these for absolutely no reason. King shows how bad it is for the children as he tell the audience about having to answer a six-year-old girl why they can go to “funtown” or answer to a five-year-old boy about why white people are so mean. He uses children because they are young and innocent and having to live such a rough life.
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.
He also appeals to Pathos in his speech, where he includes his own family hopes that americans can relate to him. As a father he dreams “ 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 the content of their character”. (King) He hopes his children will live in better world than he did. He appeals to pathos through a concerning father.