Rhetorical Analysis Letter From Birmingham Jail
This long complex quote came from the well-known letter of Birmingham jail written by Martin Luther king. Through this letter, he uses a lot of different writing techniques to reach out to his audience. This writing technique has not only made me look at his writing but also feel connected to his writing. He was an American Baptist minister, social activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. He is a strong, well known powerful figure from America’s history. In this quote, MLK uses a variety of writing styles to illustrate his thoughts. The three writing styles he uses are ethos, pathos,
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Pathos makes them feel sympathy towards the author’s point of view. There is a lot of feelings put into one long sentence. Everyone has feelings and everyone can get their feelings hurt, especially when losing a loved one. So MLK specifically makes a point in his letter by putting emotion into the writing and making the reader think of how it feels to lose someone. He also uses the examples of his daughter and son in this quote to connect with parents reading this so they can easily be emotionally moved, pay attention easier, and feel sympathy. The final writing style is Logos, and this uses logical statements. It points out viewpoints by way of common sense. MLK uses all of these to help the readers understand his actions and reveal his reasoning behind them. These are techniques that I have applied to my essays. I think writing an essay that makes the reader feel like you are on a one to one conversations is very important. In MLK’s writing you see this especially when he uses the Pathos writing style because it gives the opportunity to place oneself in his shoes. When he talks about his children it’s a topic that most parents can relate to easily and it makes it a lot easier to understand MLK’s point of views when you can relate to the
Pathos makes them feel sympathy towards the author’s point of view. There is a lot of feelings put into one long sentence. Everyone has feelings and everyone can get their feelings hurt, especially when losing a loved one. So MLK specifically makes a point in his letter by putting emotion into the writing and making the reader think of how it feels to lose someone. He also uses the examples of his daughter and son in this quote to connect with parents reading this so they can easily be emotionally moved, pay attention easier, and feel sympathy. The final writing style is Logos, and this uses logical statements. It points out viewpoints by way of common sense. MLK uses all of these to help the readers understand his actions and reveal his reasoning behind them. These are techniques that I have applied to my essays. I think writing an essay that makes the reader feel like you are on a one to one conversations is very important. In MLK’s writing you see this especially when he uses the Pathos writing style because it gives the opportunity to place oneself in his shoes. When he talks about his children it’s a topic that most parents can relate to easily and it makes it a lot easier to understand MLK’s point of views when you can relate to the