Esai Robles

3-21-19

The way persuasive writing and speaking can advance the progress towards social justice
and equality by having more people help advance the purpose. In the story A letter from
Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King’s purpose is to persuade the clergymen. In the story A
Genetics of Justice, Julia Alvarez is trying to persuade her audience to speak up for injustice. In
the story U.N. Youth Assembly speech, Malala Yousafzai is trying to advocate for women's
rights, girls education and free education all over the world. Dr. King does the best job of using
rhetoric to advance his purpose because he uses all 3 (Ethos, Pathos and Logos) to persuade his
audience. Yousafzai is good using Pathos and Logos to make her audience sentimental and show
that she knows what is going around in the world but she does not use Ethos enough to connect
with people even more. Julia Alvarez does not do so well using rhetoric because she uses Pathos
and Logos a lot but not use Ethos.

Dr. King’s purpose is to persuade and get attention of the clergymen.​ One piece of evidence is "I
Say as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church, who was nurtured in its bosom." There is
two pieces of rhetoric being used here which is Ethos and Pathos, the way they are being used is
by Dr. King saying he has authority just like the Clergymen and he is using Pathos by using the
fact that both Dr. King and the Clergymen have love for the church and were raised in the
church. A final example of rhetoric is in the text and it states "we can never forget that
everything Hitler did in Germany was 'Legal'." This is an example of Logos and Pathos because
Dr. King is reminding the CLergymen about everything that Hitler did in Germany to the Jewish
men and woman. He is using Pathos in this quote to because he is comparing to the situation that
happened in Germany to what is happening now in Birmingham which could possibly lead up to
the point of what Hitler did. Dr. King is very successful in using Rhetoric because he is using
Ethos, Pathos and Logos a lot in the letter that he made. He is able to relate to the Clergymen, the
parents and to the African Americans everywhere. He is also able to have his audience feel
sentimental for the social injustice that is going on in Birmingham.

In the story A Genetics of Justice the purpose for Alvarez is to persuade her audience to speak up
for injustice. In the text it says “The day came for when my mother had to march. The parade
went on for hours in the hot sun until my mother was sure she was going to faint. Her feet were
swollen and hurting.” This quote helps Alvarez’s purpose because she is showing what Trujillo
made her mother do when he was in dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. This shows Pathos
because she is making her audience feel sentimental for her mother and everyone under the
dictatorship. Another piece of evidence is "Even on American soil, they were afraid of awful
consequences if they spoke out or disagreed with authorities. The First Amendment right to free
speech meant nothing to them. Silence about anything 'political' was the rule in our house" This
event advances her purpose by showing how Alvarez's parents were still afraid of speaking out
when they had the right to do so. This shows Pathos and Logos because Alvarez is showing that
her mother is still scarred from the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and she is making her
audience feel sorry for what happened and she is showing that she know the Amendments in the
United States even being a Dominican child. The author is not successful in using Rhetoric
throughout the story because she has people feeling sentimental throughout the whole story but
she does not have a lot of an audience that she is able to relate to.

Yousafzai’s purpose is to advocate for women’s rights, education and free education all over the
world. Yousafzai supports this argument by saying "In india, innocent and poor children are
victims of child labor." (Yousafzai 2) This helps with her purpose because she makes her
audience aware about the conditions in India and she tries to make them feel sentimental. This
helps Yousafzai's purpose because she is telling her audience that schooling isn't free and kids
that do not come from a wealthy background are forced into child labor with no education.
Another piece of evidence is "But first of all........ Recover my strength." (Yousafzai 1) Pathos is
being used in this quote because she is making her audience feel sorry and sad for her experience
with the Taliban that shot her in the bus. This helps her purpose because she is thanking
everyone that was helping her mentally and physically to make a strong bond with them. The
author is successful in using rhetoric because she uses pathos and Logos a lot in her speech but
she does not do a great job in creating a strong bond with her audience by using Ethos so she is
able to connect to them.

The best text that successfully uses rhetoric is Dr. King because he uses all 3 pieces of rhetoric
and is able to make a strong bond with his audience. Dr. King beats Alvarez because she does
not use Logos and Ethos as much as she uses Pathos. She makes her audience feel sentimental
for the people in the Dominican Republic by talking about In Yousafzai she will need to use
Ethos more so that she can connect to her audience so that they are able to support her purpose.
The way all three of these articles are successful in demonstrating how persuasive writing and
speaking advance the progress towards social justice and equality by being able to speak out to
their audience and connect to them in a personal level and have them on board with the situation
they are trying to speak out for.