American Literature

After learning about the Art of Rhetoric, it was finally understood that arguments actually take on different forms, and these varying forms also hold corresponding effects and impacts on the effect being made upon the audience. Each of these forms also goes with related objectives that set them apart from each other. To recall, the logos, was said to be the logical argument of persuation (Huber and Snider 177). This style of argument focuses on facts and logic which made it useful for business and professional letters and articles. Pathos on the other hand, appeals to the emotions of the audience. It is said to be the style of persuasion which focuses on factors that stir and influence the emotions and feelings of the audience (177). Lastly, there is Ethos. This style of persuasion focuses on the speaker or the author. Ethos, is that element of persuasion arising from the influence of the speaker (177).

This means that this style of argument focuses in the building up of the speaker or the authors credibility through words. Each style or element of persuasion has a corresponding significance to the over-all impact of an argument. It also holds valuable implications to the effects being put upon the audience. This paper shall analyze and review how these styles have been used in a very significant and valuable letter in history Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Kings Letter from a Birmingham Jail is an open letter which was written as an address and refute to the statement of eight white Alabaman clergymen. The letter basically represented Kings sentiments about how these clergymen thought that social injustice must never be addressed in the streets. Furthermore, the letter presented Kings most emotional sentiments on the then worsening case of racial prejudice and discrimination.
The first part of the Kings letter was basically an overview and an introduction of what he was about to convey. From this part, the reader would easily get an idea of what the letter will sound like in the succeeding parts. In the second paragraph, King gave a quick background about his credentials as activist and a renowned leader of a religious organization.

This is evidently what we call the ethos. In this part of the letter, it is quite understandable that King decided to first introduce himself as well as his credentials properly so as the readers will be able to know how credible he is in talking about some of Americas then most controversial social issues. Just like in any other program, a speaker is always given a proper introduction first so that the audience would know how fitted and suitable his individuality is on what he is about to say. In this case, since Kings article was an open letter, it appears logical that he first made some proper introductory statements about himself and his advocacies first, and this gave the readers sufficient background on how well versed and exposed he is on the aforementioned issues. Rights after this part, King immediately jumped and segued to the reasons why he was in jail. In this part of the letter, he emotionally relayed how mightily he tried to fight for black freedom under the guidance of God. In this part, a lot of readers, especially black Americans will easily relate, since they understand the kind of freedom King was talking about. Moreover, as King talked about God, it can easily be assumed that a lot of Christians would easily relate to this part of the letter as well, since King mentioned how he felt the Lord guided him on his way. In this point, King started shifting styles from ethos to pathos.

The succeeding statement mentioned things about injustice and which, King assumed, every person goes through in a lifetime. He specifically notes
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial outside agitator idea. Anyone who lies inside the United States can never be considered an outsider within his bounds. (King 65)

In this part of the letter, King starts to become emotional about the painful realities that black Americans were facing during that time. As what has been learned about pathos, this element of persuasion is supposed to capture the emotions and empathy of the audience. And evidently, this was also what King was trying to achieve in this part of the letter. In the succeeding parts of the letter where he specifically talked about the painful experiences black American had to go through due to racial discrimination, he continued to utilize pathos as a style of argument. It appeared that King was trying to get the audience one with his own sentiments by making them feel how the black Americans felt during times when they are being kicked by police officers, being discriminated in schools and being humiliated publicly. Kings ability to utilize pathos has also been very apparent when he mentioned how he himself conveyed how difficult it was for him to explain to his six year old child why white Americans are treating black Americans so badly. This line of the six year old child must have probably caught hearts and emotions as King went on with his letter the child asked, Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean (King 69). As a whole, it is very much observable that most of Kings appeal in this letter have more of an emotional attack. Knowing this, it is understandable that people find this letter more emotionally moving that it is informing.

Logos was only used once in this letter. In the paragraph where King discussed about unjust law code, logos as a persuasion element, was very evident. Prior to this paragraph, King was talking about natural law and the unjust law. This shift from pathos to logos was logical in the sense that King had to explicate how things are in the technical aspect of judiciary. Yes, people experience injustice every day, in the streets, in the park, and just about everywhere however, King thought of explaining to these people what injustice looks like in the proper proceeding at court and at law in order to tell them that injustice also has a more technical and complex face. And in this kind of discussion, only logos appears useful in the argument, since the information being talked about is a factual and technical information. This piece of information does not have anything to do with the authors credentials, as well as to the empathy of the readers, that is why logos applies best in this part. The shift of the authors from pathos to logos has been acceptable since the flow of information also went well with the transition.

As a whole, Kings utilization of the elements of persuasion has been very effective. He started off with ethos since he first wanted to establish himself as a credible author. This was very logical as it created a good introduction about the author as well as the issues he was about to talk about. It was evident that pathos has been very dominant in this piece of work. This was completely understandable as this work appeared to be address and appeal to the people King was pertaining to as agitators, as well as to the black Americans like himself. Basically, the information conveyed in this article was emotional and sentimental hence, it appears acceptable that the author directed his words toward the readers emotions as well. Logos was almost not utilized, but this is also understandable since the author did not make use of much technical and factual information. All in all, based from the utilization of the three elements of persuasion, it could be deduced the Kings Letter from an Birmingham Jail is a piece of literature which has been dominated by the pathos.