MLK JR. Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, with examination shows that this letter has forms of Pathos, Logos, and Ethos all throughout it. This letter, not only is it very well written but Doctor King used excellent rhetoric skills to get his point across to the clergymen.
One form of Logos is when Dr. King writes about the white moderate and their misconception of time. He writes, “I had also hope that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relations to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.” He paraphrases a line from a letter that he received, and he uses the concept of time for factual data. He also asserts the fact that time itself is neutral. He uses logic and reason to get his point across with this statement as well.
All through-out the text, Martin Luther King shows his disappointment with the church. However he is fair-minded with what he says. An example would be “I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non-segregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago. But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.” He mentions the fact that he is not a negative critic and that he still loves the church and he is fair in his evaluation of the church. All this is one example of Ethos because the letter is to clergymen and the evaluation is appropriate to the audience, he is fair, and has good grammar through-out the whole text.
In this specific text there are many forms of Pathos but, one that really stuck out was when Dr. King said this, “Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored" when your first name becomes "Nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when your are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a 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.” That whole paragraph is full of emotion, and vivid descriptions of what the African Americans had to deal with at that time. With this, he emotionally shows people why they are impatience and why there is a need to act. I feel like that he uses this to guilt trip the clergymen, but rightfully so, because he wants to them to see life from his and the African American’s point of view.