Ethos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Imagine your family “smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society” (King). How would you feel? Would you rebel so that your family can have what they need? Martin Luther King, the famous civil rights spokesperson and leader known for his civil disobedience. Talking about the extreme mistreatment that people of color receive makes his audience interested. He was bringing great justice to the african-americans by speaking up about the issue, since everyone knew this was wrong but no one was ever brave enough . Martin Luther King included a large variety of rhetorical appeals in his “Letter From Birmingham jail,” The two most effective ones are polysyndeton and pathos because they force the reader to consider the consequences about the discrimination and overwhelming hatred towards the african-americans while also making
the clergymen feel strikingly guilty for the distress they have had to go sustain.
Polysyndeton is used multiple effective times in King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” and displays the true power that was shown in his letter to the clergymen. Polysyndeton is the over use of conjunction words in between commas, and slows down the reader to emphase every single object the writer is listing. Doing this not only makes the reader focus on every individual listed object, it makes them remember it more and its importance behind the entire letter itself. MLK used polysyndeton to truly show how the white people were spewing hatred on african-americans at an alarming rate, but with power and thought. It makes you think about how cruel the whites actually were to these african-americans, how they must have felt like caged animals, held back from their freedom while it was right in front of their eyes.
When reading MLK’s “Letter to Birmingham Jail,” you feel a strong sense of emotion. Otherwise known as pathos, a rhetorical appeal that conveys heavy emotion. By using imagery, and meticulous detail, King makes the audience, especially the clergymen, feel terribly guilty for how poorly the black community were looked upon. He wrote, “...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;” MLK was trying to make the clergymen feel culpable by using an anecdote of little kids, not being able to do “kid” things, like go to amusement parks and have fun.
He declared in his, “Letter To Birmingham,” that, “But 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 and kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society…” By using both polysyndeton and pathos in this quote he produces an overwhelming tension that comes from the discrimination that he portrays.
Assuredly, King spent a great amount of time doing research and using rhetorical appeals effectively to bring more power and potential to his writing towards the clergymen, since he was a leader in the civil rights movement it was necessary for him to do so. However, other appeals used by MLK in his, “Letter To Birmingham Jail,” may have been effective in his purpose of writing, polysyndeton and pathos were the most profitable ones to convey a strong sense of shame for the audience. While also making the effect of shame long lasting throughout his
writing.