Letter from Birmingham Jail

There are three tools of rhetoric; Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses these tools to persuade a fellow group of church ministers to take a stand for civil rights, and stop being spectators.                          Ethos is a writer’s credibility, Writing & Rhetoric states that ethos relies on the establishing trust with the reader, a “This is who I am, this is why I am qualified to talk on this subject.” Martian Luther King Jr. was a Baptist Church Minister, and he begins establishing his ethos with his opening line “My Dear Fellow Clergy-men.” This implies a connection between him and his readers so they trust him more. He is one of them. The related examples use Ethos to prove his point. Because he is writing to a religious audience, King often uses examples from the Bible, or Christian history to get his point across to his audience. Another example of ethos are his statements, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference” and “catapulted into leadership of the Montgomery bus protest” The last major example is how he ends the letter, he reminds the readers that he is writing from a jail cell. This shows that he is willing to sacrifice for his topic, and it lets the readers know that he really believes what he is saying; he isn’t just trying to manipulate them.                                                                                 King uses a multitude of pathos in his letter. In a long paragraph on pg. 198 there is are a number of examples that are designed to make the reader feel all the suffering segregation has caused. Specifically, pathos is used on pg. 200 by linking segregation with Hitler’s actions. This link is to evoke strong emotions against segregation. King also uses Pathos through dictation; he uses phrases such as, “dark dungeons of complacency,” to give the current state of affairs a negative hype, and phrases such as, “bright hills of creative protest” to give his plan a positive spin.                                                                                         Martin Luther King uses Logos that is tailored towards his audience. He is talking to Christians, so he uses examples from the bible that they understand. When he speaks of civil disobedience, he uses Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as moral examples. He says on pg. 204, how early Christians were considered disturbers of the peace, because they wouldn’t back down from what they believed. These kinds of statements were designed so that his audience would understand what he was saying.