Theme Of Pathos In The Birmingham Letter

Dr. King’s claim is obvious and present, clearly presenting the main point of the argument as being in Birmingham because of the injustice toward the Negro community. Quoted directly from the letter, Dr. King states, “there can be no gain-saying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this [Birmingham, Alabama] community” (277). This quote demonstrates the statement of claim found directly from the text itself. Continuing on, the claim is supported by multiple subclaims like unjust treatment in the courts, unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham, and unfulfilled negotiation plans with merchants who promised to remove multiple stores’ humiliating racial signs. Next, support throughout the letter is apparent in order to uphold

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses pathos in his letter by convincing his audience to believe the argument of segregation. He shows credibility through appealing to his audience by having them understand him as a religious figure. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses why the dangers of segregation should be put to an end for the eight white

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. motivation to write “Letter From Birmingham Jail” was to address the injustice he received during his time of his incarceration. King felt distraught and deeply offended by the treatment of the clergymen. He decided that it was useful to put his emotions on paper to express how to best explain his unlawful situation. King wrote this letter with disapproval, sorrow, and disappointment to convey his principles were wrongly tried. He used this letter to justify his reasoning for nonviolent acts of defiance against segregation. Dr. King structured his counterargument for the clergymen after listening to his view, then used ethos, logos, and pathos to make an appeal to his readers his perspective about the unfair treatment of African Americans.

Martin Luther King went to jail for protesting for blacks in Birmingham in 1963. During the early starts of the civil rights movement he wrote a letter while in jail addressing the criticism people showed towards him who should have known better to not bash him in negative ways. It is known that the Birmingham Letter was the most important letter documented in the civil rights era. The letter provided as a long road to freedom in a civil rights movement. In this letter there are three appeals shown in the text. One appeal is known as Ethos. Ethos means to convince the audience of the authors work or character. Pathos is another appeal which is intended to persuade an audience which has to relate to their emotions. The third one is logos which appeals to logic also known to convince an audience by the use of reason.

The use of these facts gave context to the situation while showing the measures that African Americans suffered through to seek change. Reverend King did not only use logos to justify why they protested, but also why they could not wait for the government.

¨Wait...Just wait¨; For years the only thing negros heard when segregation laws were brought up is to just wait. Martin Luther King Jr. was one who was constantly told to wait, that things were changing, that people were doing everything they could to make changes, and that they didn’t need him meddling in their business. In response to all of these claims King wrote “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” In this letter King addresses many of the issues related to the pace at which segregation laws are changing and how he can no longer just sit by idly and watch. In the text King uses a number of different rhetorical strategies to get his points and ideas across. King uses pathos to appeal to his audiences emotion to get them to see things from the negro point of view, ethos that really build his credibility and get his audience to really listen to him, and logos to appeal to people's logic and compare what is happening with the progression of segregation laws in other countries compared to the United States. Although King is in the minority and has far less people on his side he deploys the use of all of these strategies so beautifully and with so much character that it is almost impossible to not side with him.

    The intent of Dr. King was to address his reasoning for being in Birmingham and to expound upon what the clergyman called unwise and untimely. In the initiation of the letter he explains his position in society. He was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and a civil rights activist who fought for equality of all regardless of ethnicity. His main focus was to induce equality into Birmingham instead of segregation. His position was the voice of the black community and he was known by many, including the president of the United States. He was also a pastor who had political and biblical knowledge and understanding like his “fellow clergyman.” In the

In the story “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, he uses pathos and repetition to reinforce his arguments for civil disobedience. “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” page 7 of MLK letter. The form of pathos is persuasive by that MLK uses emotions by the painful experience in getting freedom. MLK gets motivated to do this by the fact that he is tired of segregation in the United States and wants everyone to be equal. He hopes that by demanding freedom, everyone would be equal.

As a response to an unjust proposition from the Alabama clergymen, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to persuade the people to look things from his point of view. The clergymen wrote that the protests should stop and the problem of civil rights should be attempted as a negotiation, yet they did not specify when they were going to start. King utilizes different appeals to prove that black people should have the same rights as the white people. In his letter, he utilizes logical, ethical and emotional to prove that people have the right to break any unfair laws.

As you may know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was a very persuasive and opinionated man. In order to achieve this, he used two main types of persuasive appeals in his most famous work, “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” These appeals are known as logical and emotional appeals. Also known as logos and pathos. King’s usage of logos are just as effective to readers as his usage of pathos. When he uses them, they make readers/listeners even more confident in believing his argument.

The letter started out with him explaining why he was in Birmingham in the first place. Dr. King was invited there by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He goes on to say that he found it important to help the people of Birmingham out even though he didn’t live there because the issues they had there directly, as well as indirectly, effect everyone else. After showing why he was there he goes on to explain the process that lead up to the nonviolent action they took. Dr. King then went on to say that he understands many people thought the timing of this was off. He then took measures to explain why they waited so long, that

During the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a powerful and nonviolent march throughout the streets Birmingham, Alabama, with the peculiar intent to provoke the police to incarcerate him. King’s plan was a success. Until the end of his stay, King was greatly mistreated and disrespected, and he was only given a newspaper article written by a group of racially insensitive white religious leaders. Because the men stated that the Birmingham protest was “untimely” and imprudent, Dr. King decided to write a piece of correspondence to this group of individuals. However, he also ensured to address many other factions within society in order to prove the points he presented throughout his letter.

In August 1963, while sitting in Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King wrote a letter responding to the statement of the eight Clergymen. This letter addressed the criticisms of the marches conducted in Alabama. The Clergymen were not thrilled with the direct-action King and the protesters took. During this letter, King fights the battle with a well-mannered, step by step defense. King expertly combines Ethos and Logos to appeal to the Clergymen while using Anaphora, Imagery, Deductive Reasoning.

In the sixth paragraph of Dr. King’s letter, he states “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any other city in the nation.” The following statement talks about how these are the facts about the condition of the area. This factual statement is a form of logos, cleverly added in by Dr. King along with several other examples of logos, to persuade the readers with the facts of the case. The facts go on to prove the unfairness that is being distributed to the blacks in this community. Seeing how bad the situation is by looking at the information starts to get readers thinking about how to change it for the better.

This use of Logos in Martin Luther's Speech shows the folks a truth of what has not truly took impact to each African yankee person, or each Negroid within the us.