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Jevohn Jasper

3/26/19

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Persuasive writing and speaking advances the progress towards social justice and
equality because it can make others believe what you have to say. Some example of this are
from some historical texts, such as those from Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did when he
was stuck in a jail cell in Birmingham: write a letter to his fellow clergymen explaining why he did
this and why it should be allowed. Julia Alvarez made an article about speaking up for justice
after she learned about what happened to her parents and many others in the Dominican
Republic during the reign of Rafael Trujillo. Another example of this is a speech given by Malala
Yousafzai in which she is advocating for women’s rights and girls education. Both King's letter
and Yousafzai’s speech had great usage of Ethos Pathos and Logos in them. Alvarez does an
excellent job of going through what she went through and not skipping over everything, making
sure we understood everything and knew what was going on. I believe King’s letter is the best
because it had better example of Ethos Pathos and Logos.

The first example is of Yousafzai’s speech. The purpose of this speech was to advocate
for women’s rights and girls education all over the world. In the text, we see Malala talk about
how she’s fighting for people who cannot fight for themselves. One quote she uses says “But
first of all, thank you to God for whom we all are equal...recover my strength.” This shows ethos
because it creates a sense of sympathy towards the audience. Another quote she uses says
“Today I am focusing on women’s rights and girls education because they are suffering the
most.” This shows an example of pathos because she is from a country that does not have a lot
and girls/women had little to no education. This speech by Malala was very successful because
more and more places around the world are granting women and girls free education and equal
rights.

Another example is Julia Alvarez’s article about the Dominican Republic. Her purpose in
her article was to encourage her audience to speak up for justice. Alvarez talks about her
mother’s experiences as a child and how they show what type of leader Trujillo was. She says
in the text “Perhaps it was because I was spared at ten, from the dictatorship my parents went
endured most of their lives. I often imagine what it must have been like to…” This advances her
purpose by showing us that her parents lived in a dictatorship under him and she was “spared”
which shouldn’t be happening and this is an example of ethos because it makes her audience
worry about the people in the Dominican Republic because they weren’t treated right. Another
quote is when she says “When my sisters and I cared too much about our appearance, my
mother would tell us how Trujillo’s vanity knew no bounds.” This advances her purpose because
she talks about how Trujillo would take young girls. I believe her article was successful because
she makes her mother proud that she spoke up about this situation, which she was not happy
about her doing before.
My final example is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter while he was in a jail in
Birmingham. His purpose in his letter was to address his fellow clergymen. Dr. King talks about
how we are all equal and how we will forgive the whites no matter what they did. On the first
page, he says “I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time…” This statement
advances his purpose because he’s telling the clergymen that not everyone has a good will and
the ones who don’t are taking advantage of the law and this shows an example of ethos
because he makes the readers aware of how people are not following the law and may be using
them in a negative way. Another quote Dr. King uses is when he says “We will win our freedom
because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal win of God are embodied in our
echoing demands.” This advances his purpose because he says they’ll get their freedom
because of the way the nation was changing and because the had God on their side and this
shows pathos because Dr. King is connecting religion back into his argument to make the
clergymen believe him.

So, in conclusion, Dr. King’s letter from Birmingham jail was the best because of the
impact it would eventually have on the country. Also, it uses tons of example of ethos pathos
and logos, and they’re all very good. Malala’s speech was also very good and had lots of
examples of E/P/L, and Alvarez did a great job of keeping her article in order so everyone knew
what was happening.

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