From Eight Men, to a Whole Nation

The article that I chose to analyze is the well known "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that was written from civil rights promoter Martin Luther King Junior. After being prosecuted and put into jail for fighting for black rights, King decided to write this letter to the eight men who put him there. However this piece of writing did not just stay between them. The letter became a popular convincing piece that has helped shape history. The letter was started on April 16, 1963. It began addressing like so; “My Dear Fellow Clergymen.” Martin first explains what he read that was recently published by the clergymen in a Birmingham newspaper. The men described King’s acts as being “unwise and untimely”. What I love about this writing is how clever he was in addressing it to these men who had such opposing views compared to his, however he also intended for this to be heard by many others, which with time it did. Rhetorically this letter is developed so well. He uses so many different types of rhetorical devices to convey his message not just using pathos, but ethos and logos as well. The purpose of this letter I believe was to defend his actions as well as others regarding to the fight for civil rights that was such a strong issue going on during that time. What stood out to me was the personal relations (pathos) that he used to connect and appeal to the audience. Specifically he ties it all together with such strong emotion in the ending of his letter, where anaphora is so strongly developed.  He proposed how people can fight for their rights that were currently unjust in a peaceful manner. Not only does Martin Luther King Jr. use anaphora but he uses repetition strongly to get his point through to those he is hoping to get this message across to. I believe Martin Luther King Jr. overall proved his point and succeeded in his purpose. Not only did he use rhetoric to connect to the black people who agreed with him, but he was also able to convince and introduce his beliefs to not only the clergymen that he intended for, but also the Americans who needed this piece to understand so much deeper the issues that were going on around them. Martin Luther King Jr. was not only an excellent speaker of rhetoric (I Have a Dream speech) but also a powerful writer that included so much ethos appeal to his authorities, pathos for emotional appeal and logos appeal regarding the Civil Rights conflict.