Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Persuasive writing and speaking can help to advance social justice and equality because it can help to convince and move people so that they know it is needed, and as a result, take action to progress those ideas. In MLK’s letter from Birmingham, the purpose of his letter is to convince the clergymen to allow him and his group to protest. In Alvarez’s “A Genetics of Justice,” her purpose is to convince her audience to speak up against injustice and inequality. In Malala’s speech at the UN assembly, the goal of her speech is to advocate for children and women’s education so her audience can help solve the issue with education. In their arguments, these three figures use ethos, convincing your audience because of authoritative credibility, pathos, convincing your audience by moving them emotionally, and logos, convincing your audience through logic and facts. MLK does the best job at convincing his audience because he uses a lot of all three types of rhetoric efficiently, and played his audience’s weak spots to his advantage. His audience actually believed that segregation was ideal unlike the other two figures, and the result of his letter advanced the movement for the Civil Rights Act. In MLK’s letter, he tries to convince the clergymen of Birmingham to allow him and his organization to protest against the injustice present at the time. In one of his quotes, MLK gives a heartbreaking scenario that is unfortunately reality as a result of the injustice laws present. He quotes ,”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 the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people.” This quote very successfully uses pathos to convince his audience by creating a heartbreaking scenario that was reality at the time to move his audience to allow him to act in order to stop and change that reality. MLK also exposes the clergymen’s hypocrisy by dismantling one of their reasons to lock MLK up. He quotes ,”You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping ‘order’ and ‘preventing violence.’ I don’t believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent Negroes.” This quote uses logos by implying the fact that whites were violent against negroes, but the clergymen didn’t do anything against that, forcing the clergymen to change their response so they don’t look hypocritical. MLK’s use of rhetoric turned out to be very successful because he eventually got released and was able to advance the pass of the Civil Rights Act. Even today, he is hailed as a hero because of his success in being able to stop segregation in the United States. In Alvarez’s “Genetics of Justice,” the purpose of her story is to convince people to speak up about social injustice and inequality. Alvarez gives an account of her parents’ story, in how that after Trujillo was executed, they still lived like he was alive. Her story quotes ,”Those habits would not disappear with a few bullets and a national liberation proclamation. They would not disappear on a plane ride north that put hundreds of miles distance between the Island and our apartment in New York. This quote uses logos because she mentions an example of how people’s lives are impacted even after injustice disappears. This fact helps to convince her audience to speak up because the quote shows the long lasting damage it can cause to someone. The end of her story displays a happy moment that she had with her mother. The quote of this event states ,”I stood in my kitchen in Vermont, stunned, relishing her praise and

listening to her cry. It was one of the few times since I learned to talk that I did not try to answer my mother back. If there is such a thing as genetic justice that courses through the generations and finally manifests itself full-blown in a family moment, there it was.” This quote displays pathos because it shows how happy the victims of injustice are when someone speaks up against injustice, which helps to inspire the audience to do the same. While it isn’t known how successful the impact of the rhetoric used had on society, it certainly had an impact on her mother. Before, Alvarez’s mother was totally against speaking up against injustice, but she is now rooting for Alvarez to further speak up against it. In Malala’s speech, her goal was to advocate for the education of women and children so that the UN could step up to solve the issue. Despite being shot, Malala still shows compassion towards the Talaban despite what they did to her. She quotes ,”This is the compassion I have learned from Mohammed, the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This is the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali Jinnah.” Malala uses ethos in this quote to align herself with the listed, already respected figures and to say that they would’ve wanted the same thing as what she wants, convincing the UN to act based on what those figures would’ve likely wanted. Malala also mentions many problems faced by people as a result in the lack of women/children’s education. She quotes ,”In India, innocent and poor children are victims of child labor. Many schools have been destroyed in Nigeria. People in Afghanistan have been affected by extremism. Young girls have to do domestic child labor and are forced to get married at an early age. Poverty, ignorance, injustice, racism, and the deprivation of basic rights are the main problems, faced by both men and women.” Malala uses logos by stating the facts that shows how problematic it is to not have women/children educated, prompting the UN to solve those problems by considering having women/children educated. As of now, it seems to be too early to tell because this speech happened not too long ago. She was able to get her audience to applaud and agree with her, but she may have not been successful in convincing them to take action as these problems still exist. MLK’s letter to Birmingham was the most successful piece of rhetoric out of the three. The reason is because he actually faced an audience that was against him from the start, unlike the other two whose audience was just unwilling to take action. Despite the disadvantage, MLK still produced the most successful results such as the passing of the Civil Rights Act and still being hailed as a hero today. Alvarez’s story could improve by making it more argumentative rather than informative. Malala can improve by using less pathos and more logos because many people are not so easily moved by emotions. MLK was very successful because it helped to forward the progress of equality in the US, which made the history books and is hailed as a hero. Alvarez helped to completely turn around how her mother once viewed about speaking up about injustice. Malala helped to persuade her audience to agree with her, and may have even motivated some people to take action, although often in places where the problem Malala advocates for is not as serious.