Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter To The Clergymen

Each author has their own strategies and method to persuade the audience in believing in their point of view. There are variety of rhetorical strategies that can be used depending on the author’s goal of what they are trying to convey. For example, pathos are used to manipulate a reader’s emotion by creating an emotional response. Another example are logos, which is persuading the audience through and appeal of logic, and hypophora which is asking a question and answering it immediately. Even though the strategies have different effects and are used differently, their one common goal is to persuade the reader. Martin Luther King Jr. possessed these rhetorical strategies in his letter to the Clergymen, with a sole goal of persuading the audience to support his perspective. Pathos is a device that is capable of stirring up emotions such as sympathy and sorrow, in which Martin Luther King Jr. was good at through his words. For instance, he made the …show more content…
used is hypophora. Hypophora is a literary device that raises a question and then immediately provide and answer. Throughout the letter, he used hypophora the most as his strategy. For example, “Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structure?” he then stated the answer “ Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.” Through hypophora, the questions spark curiosity with the reader and the immediate response heightens the effect. Another effect of using hypophora is that the speaker seems to be more in control with the flow, and with an intensive tone, the author is almost leading the way and taking in charge. This specific literary device is good because the author is capable of defending his own points by thinking what the opposite side’s rebuttal would be with his key points or perspective. Martin Luther King Jr. was successful in using hypophora because he seemed in control by thinking one step