Cherisse Mariano Final Essay

Cherisse Mariano
03-21-19
Rhetorical Analysis Final Essay
Persuasive writing/speaking advances the progress towards social justice and equality
because it provides a point of view of those who are affected by it. The purpose of Letter From
Birmingham Jail is to respond to the clergymen and to persuade them to allow them to act. A
Genetics of Justice was written to convince Alvarez’s audience to speak up for justice. Malala’s
purpose for her U.N. Youth Assembly Speech is to advocate for women’s rights, girl’s
education, and free education all over the world for every child. Rhetoric is the use of ethos,
pathos, logos, or sequence of events to further advance and emphasize the importance of your
purpose. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. does the best job because he
uses all four of the rhetoric methods.
The purpose of text #1, Letter From Birmingham Jail, i s to respond to what the
clergyman said about their way of protesting, and to persuade them to allow them to continue
protesting. King often uses ethos to reference his position as a minister. In the text it states, " I
do not say it as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the
church. I say it as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its
bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings who will remain true to it as long as
the cord of life shall lengthen." This example of ethos advances King's purpose because it
shows his credibility as a minister. He has insight and knowledge of the situation, and his ideas
are equally as valid as the other clergymen's because he was raised with similar biblical beliefs.
King uses pathos in "I don't believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if
you had seen its angry violet dogs literally biting six unarmed, and nonviolent negroes. This
advances King's purpose because he uses vivid words to describe the severity of the
mistreatment of Africans. This would bring out emotions of empathy because people would
generally feel bad if innocent victims are being harmed for no valid reason. King’s use of
rhetoric is successful because he shows authority that will make the audience think he is
trustworthy. He also creates a description of the situation that can trigger emotions from the
readers.
Alvarez’s purpose for writing this is to inform the audience of the hardships faced by the
those in the Dominican Republic and to persuade her audience to speak up for justice.
Supporting Evidence: Alvarez uses a series of events to describe the situation in the Dominican
Republic. Page 6 states, "But if I shut up, wouldn't I still be fanning the embers of the
dictatorship with its continuing power of censorship and control over the imagination of many
Dominicans?" If Alvarez, or someone, does not speak up against the injustices of the
dictatorship, the events that happened in the past, will continue to happen and be the way of life
for the Dominicans, including the present and future generations. This advances the purpose
because it shows that the new generations could also face what the old generations had to
endure, if a change does not happen. Alvarez uses ethos, and word choice, to identify the
hardships. Page 4 states, "All their lives my parents, along with a nation of Dominicans, had
learned the habits of repression, censorship, and terror." Because they grew up under Trujillo's
harsh reign, the trauma that Alvarez's parents' faced are still stuck with them. The readers would
generally feel bad because of the pain that the Dominicans had to endure. This advances the
purpose because getting justice can finally give closure to those involved and affected by the
situation. It can heal their wounds and free them from the pain that they still carry. Alvarez was
mildly successful because she didn’t really include ethos in her explanations. If she did, it was
the bare minimum.
Malala addressed the U.N to advocate for women’s rights, girls’ education, and free
education all over the world for every child. Malala uses logos to create a descriptive imagery of
how education can be used against violence. when she says " We realise the importance of our
voice when we are silenced. In the same way, when we were in Swat, the north of Pakistan, we
realised the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns. The wise saying, “The pen is
mightier than sword” was true." The importance of speaking up is crucial because it will bring
awareness to what is happening. This advances the purpose because it also gives significance
to education. If everyone has education, a lot of the problems in the world can be solved
because more people are knowledgeable on how to handle it. Malala uses ethos Islam to
reference an authority figure. “Islam is a religion of peace, humanity and brotherhood. Islam
says that it is not only each child’s right to get education, rather it is their duty and
responsibility." Everyone should have the right to education, according to the Islam views.
People can agree with Islamic views and that could bring attention to the situation. This would
advance her purpose because people would want to do something about it if a higher figure
(Islam) agrees with it. I think that Malala is more successful than Alvarez because she uses all
three of the rhetoric methods, but doesn’t use as much ethos to create a credible figure of
herself.
In conclusion, Letter From Birmingham Jail b y Martin Luther King Jr. creates the best job
using rhetoric to advance their purpose. This is because when he incorporates ethos, logos, and
pathos into his writing, it creates an effect on the audience. The audience feels the need to
speak up for the injustice against Africans. The other two could be improved if they used more
of other rhetoric methods instead of mostly using one. Even though I am not a very experienced
writer, I still think that these were pretty successful, especially MLK’s. They all provided
evidence that supported the need to speak up for justice and equality. Their purposes were
advanced by identifying and analyzing the situation and conditions that people are in.

Cherisse Mariano Final Essay

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cherisse Mariano Final Essay

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cherisse Mariano Final Essay

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Cherisse Mariano

Rhetorical Analysis Final Essay

You might also like