Salvador Lopez

Professor Baer

English 5B

MWF 12:00-12:50PM

Letter from Birmingham Jail (Pathos)

This letter was for the clergy men of the Birmingham Jail. In this letter from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we can point out certain Rhetorical situations that others might not see when they first read it. Therefore, i will be pointing out certain examples of Pathos from this letter. 

When i read this article for the first time i did not focus on the rhetorical aspect of it; however, after reading it an knowing about rhetorical situations some quotes in the letter stood out to me as pathos, ethos, and logos. For example, Dr.King wrote,"We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights." In this quote Dr. King uses pathos by sharing to us that people have waited 340 years for rights. This is a lot of years for someone to be waiting. He uses the years as  reference to say how much more do they have to wait? He wants to inform them that they have been waiting a long period, and they want their rights just like everyone else in the country. 

Furthermore, Dr.King also addressed to the clergy men,"There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation" Dr.King points out to the reader that the colored don't have the same treatment as the whites do. King shares to us that if a colored persons belongings,premises, or themselves are destroyed upon, they don't worry for them as much as they would care for a white person getting hurt. King points out the injustice there is in Birmingham. He wants others to realize it just as bad as he does. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. never wanted to get revenge because it would get him no where, they would just consider him as another criminal. However, he non-violently wrote them this letter addressing them of the deeply segregated city.