Corbin Marucco

2/9/17
English 102 Part 1
Professor
Dr. Martian Luther King from Jail
The letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Dr. Martian Luther King, is

directed toward the clergy men who spoke out against Dr. King when he came down

to Birmingham to help speak out against the injustice that faced the city at the

time. Rhetoric analysis is considering a paper and finding the uses of persuasion

that are used in said paper. There are four forms that you can use in a paper to

make it become persuasive: Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and Kararos. Each use shares its

own way of being persuasive and appealing to different parts of the human senses.

Logos appeals to the logical part of the human brain where ethos plays to the

authority of a figure. Next comes pathos which appeals to the heart strings and or

emotions of a human being, finally kararos is the play with time: being in the right

place at the right time. The most useful tool I believe you can use in a story is

pathos. This plays with a persons emotions and this is a delicate but very effective

way to convince someone to believe your argument.

Logos is the piece of an argument that you use to be effective in using logic

to convince your reader that your idea is correct. Anyone who lives inside the

United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. (Dr.

Martian Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Page 1) This quote shows the act

of logos being used in the persuasive tense of Dr. MLK during the letter he wrote to

the clergy men. What he states here is commenting on the fact that these men

called him an outsider to the event of him coming into the town and causing

havoc. This is how he responded; in other words, he says that we cannot see each
other as outsiders if we are not the same. We are all Americans and all have the

same rights; we are all people and deserve to be treated as such.

Pathos is the next use of pervasive techniques that Dr. Martian Luther King

uses in his letter from Birmingham jail. 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. (Dr. Martian

Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Page 1) This quote appeals the sensitivity

to the act that he is promoting: the civil rights movement. He is talking about how

we are all connected, we cannot let prejudice go without an answer. It is inhuman to

treat one human being like they are a lower-class citizen because they look

different, talk different, and or are different looking then you are. Dr. Martian Luther

King speaks to the fact that once we start to let people treat each other like animals

or just with any prejudice at all we will never be able to stop. It becomes a part of a

culture and once people see that act as acceptable to treat others like this where

does it stop. Next it goes to the fact that one person is smarter than another or one

person can lift more weight than another person. It can come down to the pettiest

things that we can think of just to be able to put one person down father to make

yourself feel better.

Ethos is a big piece to convincing people of your point because it speaks to

the credibility of the person that is speaking to you or discrediting the opponent. I

have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership

Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in

Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the

South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. (Dr.

Martian Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Page one). This quote I believe is
one of the most powerful in the whole argument because it really speaks to who Dr.

Martian Luther King is as a person and an authority figure. This quote was used

when the clergy men spoke to the fact that he was an outside source causing havoc

in a town he didnt belong. This piece really speaks to the fact that he does more

than belong in this city, and that he is a huge factor to one of the biggest

organizations at the time in the city. He proved his point by mentioning the growth

of the organization and all the connections this organization brings to Dr. Martian

Luther Kings presence and the power that he holds with all of these pieces to the

organization calling him at will to bring up a protest.

The last of the persuasive tactics that you could use is Kairos, this is the use

of time and place for a person to further their argument. Thus it is that I can urge

men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I

can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong. (Dr.

Martian Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Page 4). This is the first quote that

can describe how time works for an argument. The time of the supreme court

decision happens at lets the reader know how relevant the argument is and at the

same time shows how long the argument has had a stance in our society. Then,

last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's

economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made

by the merchants --- for example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs.

(Dr. Martian Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Page 2). With Dr. Martian

Luther King referring to the past to bring up the same point in a relevant argument

can help build his stance on why things need to change due to past events that

have a relevant topic and or reasoning behind their cause. Knowing that a strong

economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that
this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the

needed change. (Dr. Martian Luther King, Letter for Birmingham Jail, Page 2).

Timing is everything, the way you can time your arguments and place your points

can win you the argument. The way that Dr. Martian Luther King placed his protests

and sit ins were never random. He always had an agenda behind it, waiting and

plotting his points to where his message would get the most attention.

With all of these tactics being able to be used in the art of persuasion one will

always stand out the most and grab the most attention. This is the use of pathos in

an argument. Pathos with having to deal with the heart and how people personally

feel on a subject can win an argument before it even begins. If you place just facts

and statistics in front of someone you could convince them of your point of view and

they will believe you and that is the end. Whereas if you place your cause in their

heart, they will get behind you and support you the entire way because they now

have the same feelings as you. This is also the easiest way to manipulate people; if

you can take a cause that is close to the heart of people around you and pull the

strings on their heart to believe that your cause is the way to solve their problems

you have won the argument. Need Proof? Just look at the holocaust.