Tatiana Molina

Rhetorical Analysis Essay: King, Alvarez, Yousafzai

Persuasive writing and speaking can advance the progress towards social justice and equality by

influencing any audience to make a change. In the letter from birmingham jail by king, he sets

the purpose that he wants to respond to the clergymen and persuade them to allow him to

protest. Alvarez wrote in a genetics of justice to convince her readers to speak up for justice

anywhere. Malala's purpose of the speech was to advocate women's rights, girls education and

free education. Each of these use rhetoric by showing emotion credibility to others and having

reasoning. The text that does the best job advance their purpose is the birmingham letter by king.

King wants to respond to the clergymen and persuade them to allow him to protest. Wen king

realizes the position he was in , he finds himself in trouble. In the letter it says “i started thinking

about the fact that i stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the negro community” this

shows logo because it shows how king used the reason of being on two different sides of his

community to show the clergymen that his reason for wanting to protest were right. King uses

pathos to show how he is needed to do the right thing following religious leaders. The letter says

“just as the 8th century….i too am compound to carry the gospel of freedom “ (king 1) pathos

was used to advance the letter because king appealed to the religion of the clergymen by pointing

out fingers from the bible. King use of rhetoric is very successful because he does a well job of

showing his emotion and his logic to try to convince the clergymen that he should be permitted

to protest.

Alvarez wants to convince readers to speak up for justice anywhere. Alvarez shows pathos in her

text when she says her mother's experience in the parade that she participated in to march against
trujillo. Alvarez says “ the day came when my mother had to march. The parade when on for

hours in hot sun until my mother was sure she was going to faint” (3) pathos was used in the text

to further advance alvarez purpose because she explained how her mother spoke up for justice

even though she was in alot of pain. This would affect her audience by influencing them to not

give up and fight for what's right. Alvarez was somewhat successful in using rhetoric to advance

the purpose of her text. She was somewhat successful because she used pathos more to help her

explain her purpose throughout the text also, alvarez used ethos to explain how her parents

spared her at the age of ten from the dictatorship and how her mother was a big fan of trujillo

when she was young in the text it says “she knew nothing of the horrid crimes of the

dictatorship, for her parents were afraid to say anything - even to their own children - against the

regime” (1). this shows how ethos was used to help advance the purpose because she used her

credibility to show that her mother was the one that went through not knowing what was

politically going on which would influence her audience to speak up about politics and make the

right changes. Alvarez was somewhat successful in using rhetoric to advance the purpose of her

text. She was somewhat successful because she used pathos more to help her explain her purpose

Malala purpose was to have women's rights and girls education and for children around the

world. Malala starts to name leaders to show she is in a way thanking them, in the text it says

“This is the philosophy of nonviolence that i have learned from gardi, bacitracin and mother

teresa. This is the forgiveness that i have learned from my father and my mother this is what my

soul is telling me; be peaceful and love everyone” this shows ethos was used further advance her

purpose because by aligning herself with them also makes herself authority figures to speak for

what is right and for education additionally malala uses pathos when she begins to explain who
are the ones suffering. In the text it says “we are really tired of theses wars. When children are

suffering in many ways in many parts of the world “ this shows pathos because by her explaining

about the kids it will influence her audience to stand up and make a change. The author's use of

methane is slightly successful because she uses more of showing her emotions. In conclusion the

3 text were good at using rhetoric to advance their purposes but king's letter did a better job at it.

Kings text was the best because he did a well job at trying persuade the clergymen to let him

protest since he showed how he really how he really cared about the protest. Although the other

2 text could improve if they were to explain more so that their purpose could stand out more. All

the pieces are successful at demonstrating how persuasive writing and speaking can advance the

progress towards social justice and equality because they each show how their audience should

be upstanders so changes in the would could be changed.