Geancarlo Rivera

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

3/21/19
Period 3

Rhetoric was used in many different ways within the Letter from
Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, A Genetics of Justice by Julia
Alvarez, and Malala Yousafzai’s speech. LFBJ was a letter that Mr. King
wrote to the clergymen when his race was going through racism and
segregation. Julia Alvarez’s story was about her parents’ lives under the
dictator Rafael Trujillo to fight for the victims’ justice. Malala’s speech was
made to spread awareness for women and children’s rights. All the texts
include ethos, pathos, and logos. But King uses pathos mostly to advance
his purpose, Alvarez uses more of logos to advance her purpose, and
Malala uses more of ethos to advance her purpose. Therefore, by King
appealing to the audience’s feelings the most, he is able to advance his
purpose the best using rhetoric.
Mr.King uses pathos to make his audience feel bad for him by
showing them the unfair punishments him and his kind are receiving. ​"...just
as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of
Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman
world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my
particular home town" (1). Mr. King said he is like a biblical figure when he
explained how his actions were doing nothing harmful to the public. The
rhetoric, Pathos, is a way to convince the audience to understand your
argument by appealing to their feelings and/or beliefs. This quote is a good
example of Pathos because Mr. King used his audience's religious beliefs
to get his point across because they’re not permitted to go against anything
that involves the god they believe in. ​As i mentioned before King uses
pathos to appeal to his audience and to get his main point recognized ​ ​"I'm
grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of
nonviolence entered our struggle" (7). Martin Luther King talks about how
his Church is full of colored people chooses to stay calm no matter how
bad they are getting mistreated. He used pathos in this quote and it's a way
of having the audience understand his point of view by appealing to their
feelings and/or religious beliefs. So, by King including God and the
Clergymen's religious beliefs in his letter, he’s able to get the audience to
realize the colored people aren’t doing anything wrong. What their skin
color is doesn’t matter because they all believe in the same God and are
protesting without violence.
Julia Alvarez uses logos to advance her purpose on her her mother
and other woman in the Dominican Republic. ​This is shown when she
says, "She knew nothing of the horrid crimes of the dictatorship, for her
parents were afraid to say anything-even to their own children-against the
regime" (1). This advances her purpose because she gives an example of
the dangerous the living situation was back in those times. Alvarez’s
parents’ lives were on the line just by talking about the dictatorship which
shows how serious it is to speak up to receive justice. This shows logos
because the author shows the consequences the victims had gone through
which is common sense. Therefore, logic is included in the text to advance
her point. Then, Alvarez talks about her mother being obligated to march in
the parade with really dangerous conditions which left much trauma. "My
mother, especially, lived in terror of the consequences of living as free
citizens" (4). This shows logos because it includes logic of how the
experiences her mother went through affected her in the future. This
rhetoric advances her purpose by showing how no matter how far away
she is from Trujillo she will not live in peace until justice is served. In order
to do this, the situation must be spoken up about to the audience which is
Alvarez’s argument.
Mala uses ethos to advance her purpose on how many women and
children around the world are not getting equal rights. ​"There was a time
when women activists asked men to stand up for their rights" (11). Other
women in the past have spoken up not just for their rights, but mens' too.
This is an example of ethos because the speaker is relating herself to
people who also advocate for their own rights. Because she does this,
Yousafzai can advance her purpose by showing her audience how
speaking up for justice isn’t new so she deserves to be acknowledged. This
is another example of ethos because Mala compares herself to high
leaders. “This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from
Gandhi, Bacha Klan and Mother Teresa” (7). This show ethos because
Malala is describing herself as superior. She includes examples of other
high ranked leaders in order to get to her point. Therefore, Malala uses
ethos to advance her point so that the audience agrees with giving women
and children more rights.
Therefore the best example of rhetoric used to advance the author’s
purpose is Pathos since appealing to the audience’s emotions and religious
beliefs. Because Martin Luther King’s letter was the text that mostly used
pathos, it becomes the text that best advances its point. This makes Mr.
King’s argument reliable. All the texts include ethos, pathos, and logos
making them all successful in a way. But Julia Alvarez and Malala
Yousafzai included more pathos and logos which means King advanced his
purpose the best through logos.