Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Geancarlo Rivera Rhetorical Analysis Essay 3/21/19 Period 3 Rhetoric was used in many different ways within the Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, A Genetics of Justice by Julia Alvarez, and Malala Yousafzai’s speech. LFBJ was a letter that Mr. King wrote to the clergymen when his race was going through racism and segregation. Julia Alvarez’s story was about her parents’ lives under the dictator Rafael Trujillo to fight for the victims’ justice. Malala’s speech was made to spread awareness for women and children’s rights. All the texts include ethos, pathos, and logos. But King uses pathos mostly to advance his purpose, Alvarez uses more of logos to advance her purpose, and Malala uses more of ethos to advance her purpose. Therefore, by King appealing to the audience’s feelings the most, he is able to advance his purpose the best using rhetoric. Mr.King uses pathos to make his audience feel bad for him by showing them the unfair punishments him and his kind are receiving. ​"...just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town" (1). Mr. King said he is like a biblical figure when he explained how his actions were doing nothing harmful to the public. The rhetoric, Pathos, is a way to convince the audience to understand your argument by appealing to their feelings and/or beliefs. This quote is a good example of Pathos because Mr. King used his audience's religious beliefs to get his point across because they’re not permitted to go against anything that involves the god they believe in. ​As i mentioned before King uses pathos to appeal to his audience and to get his main point recognized ​ ​"I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle" (7). Martin Luther King talks about how his Church is full of colored people chooses to stay calm no matter how

bad they are getting mistreated. He used pathos in this quote and it's a way of having the audience understand his point of view by appealing to their feelings and/or religious beliefs. So, by King including God and the Clergymen's religious beliefs in his letter, he’s able to get the audience to realize the colored people aren’t doing anything wrong. What their skin color is doesn’t matter because they all believe in the same God and are protesting without violence. Julia Alvarez uses logos to advance her purpose on her her mother and other woman in the Dominican Republic. ​This is shown when she says, "She knew nothing of the horrid crimes of the dictatorship, for her parents were afraid to say anything-even to their own children-against the regime" (1). This advances her purpose because she gives an example of the dangerous the living situation was back in those times. Alvarez’s parents’ lives were on the line just by talking about the dictatorship which shows how serious it is to speak up to receive justice. This shows logos because the author shows the consequences the victims had gone through which is common sense. Therefore, logic is included in the text to advance her point. Then, Alvarez talks about her mother being obligated to march in the parade with really dangerous conditions which left much trauma. "My mother, especially, lived in terror of the consequences of living as free citizens" (4). This shows logos because it includes logic of how the experiences her mother went through affected her in the future. This rhetoric advances her purpose by showing how no matter how far away she is from Trujillo she will not live in peace until justice is served. In order to do this, the situation must be spoken up about to the audience which is Alvarez’s argument. Mala uses ethos to advance her purpose on how many women and children around the world are not getting equal rights. ​"There was a time when women activists asked men to stand up for their rights" (11). Other women in the past have spoken up not just for their rights, but mens' too. This is an example of ethos because the speaker is relating herself to people who also advocate for their own rights. Because she does this, Yousafzai can advance her purpose by showing her audience how

speaking up for justice isn’t new so she deserves to be acknowledged. This is another example of ethos because Mala compares herself to high leaders. “This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Klan and Mother Teresa” (7). This show ethos because Malala is describing herself as superior. She includes examples of other high ranked leaders in order to get to her point. Therefore, Malala uses ethos to advance her point so that the audience agrees with giving women and children more rights. Therefore the best example of rhetoric used to advance the author’s purpose is Pathos since appealing to the audience’s emotions and religious beliefs. Because Martin Luther King’s letter was the text that mostly used pathos, it becomes the text that best advances its point. This makes Mr. King’s argument reliable. All the texts include ethos, pathos, and logos making them all successful in a way. But Julia Alvarez and Malala Yousafzai included more pathos and logos which means King advanced his purpose the best through logos.