Ethos, Pathos, Logos Kings Letter to Birmingham Essay Example

and the months went on, they realized that they were the victims of broken promises, because the signs went back up.

Due to the fact that their hopes were yet again blasted they were forced to resort to direct action. This is just one example of many others in which Martin Luther King makes excellent appeals to logos. In his "Letter," Martin Luther King's ability to effectively use pathos, or to appeal to the emotions of his audiences, is evident in a variety of places. when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast ajority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean? " King demonstrates his ability to inspire his fellow civil rights activists,

raise empathy in the hearts of white conservatives, and create compassion in the minds of the eight clergyman to which the "Letter" is directed.

Ethos are present throughout the “Letter” but there was one specific example that caught my attention. “Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. ” While Martin Luther King Jr. s trying to explain the difference between just and unjust laws, he uses a credible quote from Thomas Aquinas.

Through the use of particular rhetorical strategies such as logos, pathos, and ethos, Martin Luther King Jr. effective refuted the clergymen's argument. His success was also due to his unparalleled strategy of directly addressing his audience, the clergymen, to create the basis of his argument. From there, King is able to slowly pick apart and shatter his opponent's claims. This effective method allowed King to present his defense with more authority and conviction and therefore achieve his goal: justify the reasons for nonviolent demonstrations against segregation.