Julisa Garcia

03-22-19
8th
​Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Persuasive writing and speaking advances the process towards social justice and equality
by giving the reader a better understanding of what they have gone through using pathos, ethos
and logos. Ethos, pathos and logos are a form of rhetoric. Ethos is a source of credibility, the
speaker's authority. Pathos is the use of emotion to persuade someone of your beliefs and
opinions. Logos is used to persuade the audience by logical thoughts, facts, and rationality. I was
interesting to learn to progress authors use to use rhetoric to advance their purpose. Malala
Yousafzai advocates for women's rights and education for everyone around the world. Julia
Alvarez purpose is to inform the audience of the hardships faced by those in the Dominican
Republic and persuade her audience to speak up. Dr. Martin Luther King's purpose was to
explain and persuade to the clergymen why they must be in Birmingham and act now. In my
personal opinion I believe that Malala Yousafzai does the best at advancing her purpose using
rhetoric.
Malala Yousafzai advocates for women's rights and for education for everyone around the world.
She advances her purpose by using a rhetoric example, pathos. Pathos is using emotion and
empathy for the author to better the purpose the author is making. Yousafzai says, "thank you
everyone who has prayed for my fast recovery and new life" (Yousafzai 1). This shows pathos
because she gets emotional about the people who reached out to her after she was shot. This
argument improves that education could have saved people from joining the taliban and they
would be a lot wiser with the decisions they are making. The text also says, "out of that silence
came thousands of voices" (Yousafzai 5). This is also a prime example of pathos because she
explains that when she was shot the intent was to silence her and her classmates but it only made
the people from silence become powerful. This improves the argument because in the thousands
of voices speaking they were heard and began to advocate for education. Lastly the author says,
"this the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and
Muhammad Ali Jinnah" (Yousafzai 6). This is an example of pathos because she compares
herself to a high authority and how her experience gave her an opportunity to "inherit" a change.
This improves the argument because she compares herself and uses her experience to make a
change and advocate for education.
In a Genetics of Justice by Julia Alvarez her purpose is to inform the audience of the hardships
faced by those in the Dominican Republic and persuade her audience to speak up. At the
beginning of the text Alvarez begins by introducing herself and her mothers initial experience.
She thought Trujillo was a good person. In the text is says, "she knew nothing of the horrid
crimes of the dictatorship, for her parents were afraid to say anything--even to their own
children" (p.g 1) This event advances her purpose because it is an example of the dictatorship as
an injustice. Also, it was a danger for her mother to know about the brutal dictatorship. Then
Alvarrez goes on to describes how Trujillo was a bad person for the crimes he commited and the
pain brought to her family. This is shown when she says, 'It was from my father that my mother
learned why Trujillo hated blacks with such a vengeance, how he disguised his own Haitian
ancestry, how he lightened his own skin with makeup" (p.g 20). This event advance her purpose
because this shows the audience how cruel Trujillo was to others. Finally, towards the end
Alvarez explains the relationship between her mother and her. The author says, " of all her
babies, she reports, i was the best behaved until I learned how to talk" (p.g 6). This event
advance her purposed Alvarez and her mother were very different people so they never really
had a connection. When Alvarez had first released her book her mother was proud of her and
didn't care what would happen to them next.
Dr. Martin Luther King's purpose to his opening Letter from Birmingham Jail was to persuade
and explain to the clergymen why they must be in Birmingham and to act now. During King's
persuasion he uses rhetoric to advance the importance of the letter. There are three example of
rhetoric, these examples are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. In the beginning of the letter King uses
Ethos. In the passage it says, " my dear fellow clergymen...", this shows King showing that he
has religion incommon with his audience . This advances because his purpose is to catch their
attention. Another example of rhetoric is throughout the letter, Pathos, also used to bring a
stronger purpose to his letter. King says, "through painful experience that freedom is never
voluntarily"
(p.g 3). This would make the reader feel emotion toward what they went through and how further
on explains how their freedom was fought for and not given. The last example of rhetoric is
logos which is also used in the letter. In the text it says, "society must protect the robbed and
punish the robbers" (p.g 5). This makes the argument have logical sense because the people who
do wrong should be punished as for the people who did not do wrong should be protect. This
goes on to explain that the people who went on protest for equality were in the "wrong" and
thrown in jail. While the people who did believe in segregation were right and praised for it.
King's purpose was to persuade and explain why they needed to act now upon segregation and
that he did.
Malala Yousafzai uses rhetoric to her best interest, she uses all forms of rhetoric to show her
audience how important women's rights and education for everyone is. Dr. King and Alverez can
improve their arguments by using all forms of rhetoric instead of surrounding their arguments
around pathos and logos. All forms of rhetoric were used strong and confidently in Malala's
speech. Even though I believe that Malala uses rhetoric the best, all speeches or texts were
successful by demonstrating speaking and writing to advance the towards social justice and
equality. They all use their experiences to stand up and speak for social justice and equality.
Using what they felt and went through to catch the audience's attention to bring attention towards
important times in history.