Mlk_Response

Rutkosky Acceus ENC 1102 16 Nov, 2011 Birmingham persuasion, letter from Birmingham jail addressed to clergymen On April 16, 1963, The famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, was written by Martin Luther King, Jr. this letter was written for and directed to his audience and a group of clergymen. This letter was in regard to the rebellious acts of the black community in Alabama at the time.According to the clergymen, it states “We clergymen are among those who…issued an appeal for law and order and common sense, in dealing with racial problems in Alabama” (“Letter”).while in jail king wrote this famous master piece that made American history. This document wasn’t just any old document it had more value because of the effective use of the three appeals ethos, logos, and pathos, used to appeal and address his audience, and the clergymen. Ethos is concerned with the self-portrayal of the speaker. Although, it deals with the conscious and unconscious demonstration of the speaker’s character during the delivery of the message. Ethos deals with the appearance of the person not the actual being. The goal of the speaker is to express credibility and authenticity of his character, not about his arguments. Trustworthiness is achieved through perceptions over various channels, e.g., body language, vocal qualities, content, etc. trusting a writer is absolutely necessary, its one thing to just read but its another to take the writer seriously. By quoting “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere….Never again can we afford to live with the narrow ,provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea” (King79).King is a spiritual leader that developed ethos by using text from the Bible, and establishing what he knows and describes the responsibilities of early Christian leaders. According to Mott, “King is pressed to defend his nonviolent direct action, his ‘meddling’; his defense is based largely upon Biblical precedent, that God commands Christians to spread the gospel and to aid their brethren regardless of where they live.” In the letter, King states, "Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid" (212). King is comparing and showing the reader that be it effective or not, King not only shows his knowledge of Paul's early response to the Macedonian but also implies that he too is on a spiritual mission. Logos is the appeal towards logical reason, thus the speaker wants to present an argument that appears to be sound to the audience. The speaker wants to prove the correctness of his argument or at least to make it appear to be sound. King appeals to logic when he gives the reasoning for his statement “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustice exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.” King’s reasoning includes the fact that there can be no doubt at all about the injustice. For decades the criminals have systematically undermined the real economy, subverted civil society, looted public property, eroded civil liberties, and have sought to destroy all real jobs and any basis for the life of the people as anything other than atomized corporate slaves. The goal is the complete destruction of democracy and citizenship, the spiritual destruction of humanity itself. Pathos is the emotional influence of the speaker on the audience. Its goal is to create a favorable emotional affection of the audience towards the objective;of arousing feelings and drafts for the classification of feelings.