Martin Luther King, Jr.

In his letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. writes with poise, logic, and limited, but powerful, emotional appeal. He begins his message with ethos by addressing it to his “fellow clergymen” and therefore points out his own credentials as a clergyman. This automatically places him in rank with his audience and forces them to realize he is of the same position as they are. He goes on to elevate his audience further by stating he believes that they “are men of genuine goodwill and [their] criticisms are sincerely set forth.” Here, King is making a conscious point to start off cordially so they will take his letter seriously and not blow it off as merely an angry message.

Continuing on, King uses logos to disprove the clergymen’s statement that he is an outsider. He states that the “local affiliate” of an organization that he is involved with “invited [him] here” and he has “basic organizational ties here.” He then pulls a little bit of pathos into it by appealing to religion by comparing his efforts to those of the Apostle Paul. He states that “injustice is here” and he feels “compelled to carry the gospel of freedom” as Paul did. This appeal also speaks for King’s ethos as it portrays him as a devout Christian man, which is what the clergymen claim to be.

In Kings “I Have a Dream” speech, however, he immediately launches into pathos using strong, poetic phrases like “seared in the flames of withering justice,” “crippled by the manacles of segregation,” and “languishing in the corners of American society.” King clearly wants to inspire passion and movement in his audience, and he appeals to ethos as he includes himself with the audience by saying “we stand” rather than “you stand.”

Although King puts himself on the same level of his audience in both cases, he does it to make very different points. In the letter to the clergymen, King uses ethos to remind them that he is not to be looked down upon as he is a clergyman on their level. While in his speech, however, he uses ethos to show the masses that he does not consider himself better than them, but rather on their level. In the first instance he pulls himself up, while in the second he shows that he is not above standing with the common man.

The bulk of King’s letter from Birmingham Jail is fraught with appeals to logic and occasional emotional appeals interspersed. King probably does this in an effort to sound like his emotions have not taken over him; he knows that his privileged white audience would not understand many of the things that the black citizens had been through, and dwelling too much on experiences and not enough on logic would simply lead the clergymen to further disagree with him. For this reason, King always explains things in logical terms before appealing to the audience’s pathos.

For example, when he brings up the clergymen’s argument that his actions were “untimely,” he explains to them the logical planning and thoughts that went into his march. He tells them of the many times the march was postponed because a more timely opportunity presented itself in the future, but then he explains that people cannot constantly keep “waiting” for a better time. He goes on to say that he has never been involved in a “direct action movement that was ‘well timed’” for the majority. Finally, after explaining that the word “wait” nearly always becomes the word “never,” King slip in an emotional appeal and explains the horrible things he has seen happen to people and why it is so difficult to “wait.” After understanding it from a logical point of view, the clergymen are more inclined to be touched by the descriptive images of “vicious mobs lynch[ing] your mothers and fathers at will and drown[ing] your sisters and brothers at whim.”

King’s speech, however, is highly focused on pathos the entire time. His goal here is to encourage his audience to never give up. He says that they “can never be satisfied” until they have achieved equality. King preaches that they must “refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.” He knows that he must inspire people to join the effort toward freedom, and the logical part and plan can come later. His goal is to remind these black citizens that they deserve freedom, they are entitled to it, and they cannot give up. This is why he reminds them that every American is “guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His audience understands that joining him in his pursuit of freedom will be quite dangerous, so in order to put themselves in such personal danger they must a) believe they deserve to have such rights and b) trust that King is equally involved and invested. This is why he focuses so much on their entitlements and includes himself when talking to them by always saying “we.”

Ethos is also used throughout King’s letter to remind people of his place as he continually refers to his audience as his “fellow clergymen,” and to show respect to their credentials as he constantly refers them as “sirs.” At some parts of this letter, whole pages are left simply appealing to logic while ignoring emotional appeals completely. This helps King build his personal respect with the clergymen and allows him room at the end of the letter to leave logic out entirely and purely make emotional appeals. King makes the clergymen listen with logic and then them feel with emotion.

In King’s speech, although he uses emotional appeals the entire way through, he begins to appeal even more to pathos as he gets closer to the end. His words become even more poignant and poetic, and he starts using repetition by saying “I have a dream” over and over again. Each time this phrase is repeated its meaning crescendos, and it sits continually deeper with the audience. This is the first part where King uses first person and shows his investment in the movement and his plan. He then uses repetition again with the phrase, “Let freedom ring.” This leaves his audience with resounding thoughts of dreams and freedom. King paints images in his audience’s mind that are so vivid they feel inclined to join his effort so that one day those pictures may become realities.

In both cases, King ends with more intense pathos than he begins with. Although his audiences are quite different, he was able to speak to both of them with powerful words and amazing convincingness. He truly was an amazing man, and his pacifist tactics were seen and heard.