Ethos Pathos Logos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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. Nonetheless, he wrote this article with a stubby pencil and margin of mangled

For example words such as oppression, injustice, and appalling. These words scream the frustration that he holds with the white moderates but this is nothing compared to the word choice of christian based words. For example, he uses the word crucifixion. This is a powerful word to any christian, but to compare the actions of a white moderate on an african american holds a ton of weight in a biblical sense being that crucifixion was the way their savior was killed. He is saying the persecution of himself is a martyr for the common good of the United States. This is such a power word and combination with his specifically placed words throughout the piece can show the utter frustration Dr. King deals with by being wrongfully

Throughout the history of the south, it has been made up of with anglican christians and always been a very religious area of the United States so by questioning the strength of belief in a white moderate at this time is good way to expose them and exemplify his frustrations. He does this by using Hypophora. The quote “ Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?” He uses repeated questions to show how absurd the white moderates argument is against him. He questions them as if to question their true faith in Christian because any rational christian would side with his argument. Not only does the use hypophora as a way to question the white moderates in a religious sense but in a logical one as well. The repeated questions make a comparison to Dr. King’s wrongful imprisonment to situations he asks the reader. The readers can make a very logical decision based on the situations entailed that he has been wrongfully been imprisoned that makes the white moderates shine in a bad light. Showing once again how he is frustrated with the white