"But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; 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 ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"
Here, Dr. King is using pathos with his choice of words. The images he creates in the reader's eyes makes the reader have a much better understanding of how terribly colored people were being treated. Dr. King's use of specific examples give the reader gruesome and sad images in their minds and maybe even anger or astonishment. He references to upsetting a 6 year old daughter and a 5 year old son, which could persuade or appeal to any parent. He mentions the police killing his black brothers and sisters and mobs lynching mothers and fathers, this really hits home to everybody because everybody has some sort of family.
Dr. King is using ethos when he states, "I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights." He is in a credible position since he mentions that he is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the reader can respect him for that.
He also uses ethos when he is defining just and unjust laws. "Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest." He is credible since he mentions he in fact was one of the men who had been arrested for an unjust law and persuades the reader to agree that it was unjust.
"It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason." Here Dr. King uses Logos to persuade the reader with logical reasoning. Dr. King knows that the police are enforcing discipline but for the wrong reason. He's showing the reader specific examples and a quote by T. S. Eliot that infers to the discipline the police are acting out with. This may also have a sense of pathos in it, because Dr. King is using words such as "wrong" and relating to morals which will give the reader the feeling of guilt.
I will be writing my first essay on the documentary "The Cove", which takes place in Japan. "The Cove" documents a special area in Japan where fishermen trap dolphins in a cove and kill a mass number of them. The subject of animal cruelty will allow me to use pathos in my essay by making the reader feel emotions such as sorrow, anger, and a feeling of disgust. Though I don't have much credibility I have seen the documentary and done a lot of research to have a better understanding of the subject. I could use logos in my essay by giving facts and statistics about the cove in Japan and detailed information on the cruelty that the dolphins undergo.
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