MLK, JR Rhetorical Analysis

Mike Haug
Eng 201
D. Micer
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” it is said to be one of the better rhetorical acts and I highly agree. Most people that have read this letter would agree that it deeply thought out and well written. Martin Luther King Jr. was able to write such a great letter by using many different rhetorical appeals to let his audience really understand the point or statement he was trying to make. Even though there are a few logical fallacies, Martin Luther King Jr. was able to steer away from most of them.
In this letter he was able emotional appeals very easily considering this letter was mostly on how Martin Luther King Jr. and his brotherhood were mistreated. An example of a pathos appeals is when he says “For years now I have heard the word “wait!”. It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity.” He was able to relate to his audience so well with emotion because most of his audience understands and probably had first hand experienced before. I believe his emotional appeals were the most effective in his letter because his audience was able to connect and understand the all the hurt in Martin Luther King’s heart. His pathos appeals are very powerful to its reader and his statements really leave a mark. His secret he uses behind these writings are writing what his broters really want to hear out of his writings. Martin Luther King Jr. was able to make his pathos appeal meaningful by continuing to make the statement that he broke in unjust law. He also was able to relate to his audience so well by describing unjust in his own emotional, vivid, and concrete way.
Logical appeals were also very important in Marin Luther King Jr. letter, he was able relate back to Historical people and situations. He was to go in great detail to describe his meanings of topics. One example is when he is on the topic of unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr. states “Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.” This came into play when he got arrested for parading without a permit. Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to make the point that the people making the law do not realize how much pain they are putting towards the minorities.
When Martin Luther King Jr. would start on a new subject he would always approach is audience in the right way. By doing this Marin was able to keep his readers attention and focused. Even though this piece of writing is very well done he kept it at a normal reading level.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter with so much meaning behind it, it was hard for him to keep fallacies out of his letter. Although there were few fallacies, I still believe that Martin did an unbelievable job on keeping more of them out when he is writing with so much meaning and reasoning on the immoral segregation he has felt.