Did Martin Luther King Use Ethos In Letter From Birmingham Jail

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. And "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau both portray the same idea but were told in but different ways. "Civil Disobedience" was written in the 1830's while "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was written about one hundred years later. Both letters illustrated civil disobedience in the same way by two different views. The two differ from each other due to the tone and occasion found.

Do you ever think what Martin Luther King Jr. has expressed in his writings? The speech “I have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. attracted a huge crowd of people at The Lincoln Memorial for the march on Washington. In addition to his speech Martin Luther King Jr. also wrote “ The Letter from Birmingham Jail” because he was in jail and he wrote it to 8 white clergymen. King uses logos and pathos in his letter and his speech to appeal his audiences.

"Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau and "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Lither King Jr. Both had the same idea but they were shared in different ways. "Civil Disobedience" was written in the 1830's where as "The Letter From Birmingham Jail" was written nearly 100 years letter. Both pieces of writing showed civil disobedience, and they were shared in the same way, but they both had different views. In both pieces of work the authors have different views of the injustice in the government. Both men, Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, targeted larger groups rather than smaller ones.

Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech about Civil Rights was spoken out in front of a large group in Washington DC at the Lincoln Memorial. He also wrote a “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to eight clergymen criticizing his actions while he was in jail. In both he used pathos and logos to appeal to people with logic and feelings. In Martin Luther King's “I have a dream” speech he uses a logic to appeal.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Martin Luther King Jr., had an immense amount of faith. Martin was born January 15th, 1929 to Alberta King, who was a teacher to her three children, and Martin Luther King Sr., who was the minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. King was a smart kid growing up and aspired to be a doctor. He skipped the grades of 9 and 12 and eventually graduated from Morehouse College.

As seen throughout significant events in history, strong leaders are able to mold language into a powerful tool, which they utilize for specific goals. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and Henry David Thoreau’s On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, many rhetorical devices such as ethos and the difference between just and unjust laws play a direct role in exemplifying main ideas throughout the essays. Although the essays were very similar, they did differ in the tone and audience they attracted. King and Thoreau are able to solidify their main ideas by establishing ethos in both essays.

They try to convince their audience that they are doing the right thing by using the three appeals; however, they both approach their arguments differently. King and Thoreau both use ethos to make their arguments seem credible. At the beginning of “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” King announces he is “president of the Southern

The scholarly diction conveys the education of the author and slightly detaches the idea from the author to make the thoughts less personal. Detaching the idea from the author builds a silent understanding that ideas are simply ideas. When this is combined with the intellectual vocabulary Thoreau exhibits, the detachment that is a byproduct of the formality becomes a reason to listen and attempt to understand the ideas that he presents. Thoreau’s writing style additionally emits a particular tone that exudes confidence and contemplation. In his essay, he declares, “I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then

By analyzing both of these writings it’s almost obvious that Martin Luther King was influenced by Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” because they both use very similar writing techniques. King also described a four step to a non-violent protest, and the first one is to collect facts to determine whether an injustice law exists. This relates to Thoreau’s critique of an unjust government because Thoreau believed that every machine had

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” it can easily be argued that King used many rhetorical devices such as anaphora and tone in order to further persuade his audience to take action on behalf of the Civil Rights movement. Through copious examples, the reader is presented with King’s effort to use repetition in order to drive his point as well as being presented with the changing tone of his writing which allows the reader to experience a shift in emotions and urgency throughout the

Henry David Thoreau wrote the famous letter “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” while doing his time in jail for not paying his poll tax in protest against slavery and the Mexican War. Thoreau was an outspoken critic against social issues he didn’t believe in. His letter has made a big influence on many other civil rights activists. In his letter, Thoreau used many different rhetorical strategies including pathos, as well as usages of logos and diction in order to achieve his purpose in persuading his audience that the government shouldn’t intervene. Thoreau’s use of pathos was seen greatly throughout his writing.

In my opinion Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. have very similar purposes in their writings. Both author 's are writing to protest unfair laws. But they also have very different audiences. In Civil Disobediance, Thoreau writes how those who break unjust laws should suffer the consequences as a protest to the laws.

Intelligent people use vocabulary that represents what is in their mind and physically connects our hearts to their message. Martin Luther King Jr the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was arrested Friday April 12, 1963 for demonstrating in Birmingham, Alabama. Where he commenced to write a letter called Letter From Birmingham Jail, to a white clergymen, who wrote about the King’s arrest saying it was “unwise and untimely.” Which lead to John F. Kennedy’s first time publicly speaking upon civil rights to the country. We, being human, utilize words to impact or even rouse change in individual-lives.

Thoreau also related to the world, imprisoning him when he said: “I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one but having caged myself near them”. That makes me think about how Thoreau was given a life to be free or to be caged, just as well as any person does too. You can be the puppet of society and live, how the government tells you to live as or not be the puppet and defy what society has to tell you about life and live as you would want to. A rhetorical device Thoreau used to be logos mixed with pathos to convey the reader to see as he sees such as “live free and uncommitted” that would move a person to think living free is what I want and if it 's uncommitted then I’ll take it in my opinion.

“...when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.” (MLK, 276). King uses this strong sense of appeal to emotion to engross his readers and let them know how hard it is for them.