Pathos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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

It’s significant because to claim that Dr. Kings success was “overrated” is discrediting him and his contributions.   In this paper, I will explain why he deserved all the recognition he received and how his determination for equal opportunities led

On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr addresses his fellow Clergymen about why he is in jail by releasing a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” The King discusses the recent events that have led up to this point of him being behind bars. The King begins to use ethos at the start of his letter by explaining to the reader that he is the serving president of the Southern Christian leadership conference. He continues by saying that the affiliates in Birmingham invited him to engage in a nonviolent direct action program.

His promise – to “engage in a nonviolent direct action program” – allowed him to protest here in Birmingham, since he had ties to the city that went beyond just his negro

By using rhetorical devices and appeals such as pathos and ethos, Martin Luther King Jr. successfully convinces the clergymen to understand his cause against racial injustice and persuades them not to interfere with his plans in his 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” His eloquent writing and skillful use of multiple techniques are what make the message of his letter so impactful. King’s use of pathos and ethos makes the audience more inclined to agree with King’s cause and trust him as a person. Using ethos, King (1963) states his position as the “president of the Southern Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia,” (p. 1).

In the letter, Dr.King defends peaceful protests using ethos, diction, and pathos, which strengthens his case. He wants to win the clergymen's support in his struggle against racial injustice. He establishes credibility by utilizing ethos. ¨I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership conference¨(pg 272), he says, demonstrating his professionalism and dependability . In the Letter an example of diction is when he repeats the words ¨just¨ and ¨unjust.

The two main purposes of writing the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" were to respond to the criticism of the moderate white clergy who opposed the nonviolent direct action and to defend the strategy of nonviolent resistance as the most powerful weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. In the letter, Martin Luther King Jr. uses various strategies to convey his ideas effectively. One of the strategies is the use of ethos. He establishes himself as a credible and knowledgeable authority on issues of race, religion, and justice.

King stated that because he has the credibility due to the injustice, not the white privilege. King has very well researched the topic and is showing that he is credible for a say on the issue of the racial prejudice. King’s choice of tone used is very effective and is intended to pursue his audience to believe the change he wants to happen. The introduction used establishes credibility because he addresses that he is a member of the United States. King addresses that he has just as good of a reason on racial

To begin with, King made an exceptional use of ethos to build credibility. To be specific, King shows himself to be reasonable and unbiased by the tone of his diction and how he is

I am here because I have organizational ties here” (Paragraph 3). Through this quote, Dr. King confirms his location in Birmingham by stating that his organization is the reason for protesting in Alabama. This shows he is acting as a professional, serious, and respectful man and he is not there randomly or radically.

We live in a world with currently many conflicts from the racial disparity in high incarceration rates to gun violence and the war over gun rights. In his letter, King describes that Black Americans have no identity and that the oppressed cannot remain oppressed forever. King implies that they cannot be told to “wait for justice” because if they simply

While in solitary confinement for nearly 8 days, reverend and social justice activist, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to the criticism he received for his non-violent protests. Several clergy who negatively critiqued King’s approach of seeking justice, wrote A Call for Unity, arguing that his protests were senseless and improper. Within the article, the clergymen provide nine different critiques that asserted how King’s protest are invalid, uneffective, and simply unintelligent in the fight for obtaining justice and equity for individuals of color. His letter has become one of the most profound pieces of literature of the 20th century, as King uses vivid examples and eloquent rhetorical devices to counter all nine arguments.

Patience, determination, demands, facts, hope, disappointment, and faith are all able to come as one to make a move for equality. Martin Luther King Junior wrote a letter from Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963, which conveyed his stress on how little change is occurring in the peaceful fight for inequality. The letter was sent to clergymen to show how even if there is no physical aggression being done, people cannot just sit back and watch the injustices going on. This leads to the following question: how does a letter express specific emotions, without aggression? To develop this question, a dance was created to represent the letter’s emotions.

A Letter From Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. is a name that will never be forgotten, and that will go down in the books for all of time. He was foremost a civil rights activist throughout the 1950s and 1960s. during his lifetime, which lasted from January of 1929 to April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and a social activist and was known for his non- violent protests. He believed that all people, no matter the color, have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take a direct action rather than waiting forever for justice to come through and finally be resolved. In the Spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stated in a speech that Birmingham was among one of the most segregated cities in the world.

In The Universal Declaration of Human Rights it states in article two that regardless of the government, everyone is entitled to the same law and shouldn’t be discriminated by gender or race. The Letter from a Birmingham Jail written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. King expresses his feelings about racism using pathos and how everyone is suffering from this issue in society. On the other hand, Malala also uses pathos in her speech to the United Nation about women’s rights towards education and how their rights are taken away because of their gender. Though these two extremists are fighting for different reasons, they connect to each other because they both believe in equality and have a desire to make a difference in many parts of the world.