Dr. Martin Luther King was a well-known man and there was a specific reason he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. King wanted to change the way the public viewed what him and the other freedom fighters were fighting for. He wanted them to understand why the freedom fighters engaged in nonviolent sit-ins. King wanted the people that were against him to understand what the difference between being morally right and legally right was. However, in his speech it is clear that he was not the most effective rhetoric or persuasive writer, due to the fact that he didn’t use Logos within his writing.
Dr. Martin Luther King was a credible speaker and writer during the equal rights movement. So in his letter from Birmingham Jail he already established …show more content…
King does however use a lot of one rhetoric device within his writing, which is Pathos. He appeals to people’s emotions. King encourages the readers of his letter to feel sorry for the African American population. He gives detailed accounts about grown men to stories of his daughter and son in the letter and how discrimination affects them and it makes the reader feel empathy for the African American community. He also paints Birmingham as an evil unjust place by saying things like “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” (king 1). He states that there is injustice in Birmingham multiple times in his letter and this indicates to readers that Birmingham is a horrible place that needs to change. Dr. Martin Luther King also says, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” in regards to the conditions in Birmingham (King 1). Dr. King uses this quote to scare the reader’s into thinking that Birmingham needs to change, otherwise it could hurt every other safe place in the country and it could bring a downfall to all the justice in the world due to the injustice going on within the jail. At one point he compares Birmingham to Nazi Germany by looking at the laws that are legal and illegal and what is moral and immoral. He says; “We can never forget that what Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was illegal” (King 3). He appeals to everyone’s pathos because almost everyone would agree that what Hitler did …show more content…
Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham jail he wrote a response to someone who believed what he was doing was wrong. The point of his letter was to change the mind of the people reading his letter. He wanted to prove to the readers of his letter that there was a difference between morally right and legally right. In his letter he compared the police in in Birmingham to Nazi Germany, what they were doing was not legally wrong but it was morally wrong. By using mostly pathos in the letter he appealed to the emotions of the reader to support his premises and claims instead of using all the rhetorical devices. That is why he is not the best rhetorical writer. However, he was effective with his writing because it effectively uses pathos to make the reader feel the pain and suffering that he and his people have had to suffer
Dr. Martin Luther King was a credible speaker and writer during the equal rights movement. So in his letter from Birmingham Jail he already established …show more content…
King does however use a lot of one rhetoric device within his writing, which is Pathos. He appeals to people’s emotions. King encourages the readers of his letter to feel sorry for the African American population. He gives detailed accounts about grown men to stories of his daughter and son in the letter and how discrimination affects them and it makes the reader feel empathy for the African American community. He also paints Birmingham as an evil unjust place by saying things like “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here” (king 1). He states that there is injustice in Birmingham multiple times in his letter and this indicates to readers that Birmingham is a horrible place that needs to change. Dr. Martin Luther King also says, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” in regards to the conditions in Birmingham (King 1). Dr. King uses this quote to scare the reader’s into thinking that Birmingham needs to change, otherwise it could hurt every other safe place in the country and it could bring a downfall to all the justice in the world due to the injustice going on within the jail. At one point he compares Birmingham to Nazi Germany by looking at the laws that are legal and illegal and what is moral and immoral. He says; “We can never forget that what Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was illegal” (King 3). He appeals to everyone’s pathos because almost everyone would agree that what Hitler did …show more content…
Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham jail he wrote a response to someone who believed what he was doing was wrong. The point of his letter was to change the mind of the people reading his letter. He wanted to prove to the readers of his letter that there was a difference between morally right and legally right. In his letter he compared the police in in Birmingham to Nazi Germany, what they were doing was not legally wrong but it was morally wrong. By using mostly pathos in the letter he appealed to the emotions of the reader to support his premises and claims instead of using all the rhetorical devices. That is why he is not the best rhetorical writer. However, he was effective with his writing because it effectively uses pathos to make the reader feel the pain and suffering that he and his people have had to suffer