Ethos: "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

In reviewing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" I came to realize the ethos he has in his letter.

For one he is an educated man with a PhD. This gives him credibility to write because he is very knowledgeable. He also has reason to speak on this matter because of his involvement as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His writing also exemplifies formal word choice. He uses a lot of metaphors. For example, “This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never’…only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration…. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the sting darts of segregation to say ‘wait’” (King 1963).  His tone is very calm, just as the attitude I perceived from reading this text.

His quality of information is very organized and well picked out. He sets up his letter into a multitude of paragraphs to in depth describe what happen, why it happened, how he comes to conclusions and why he is writing. Everything is very clear.

One example where he is gaining credibility is paragraph 14. He is explain the difference between determining how a law is just or unjust, showing his knowledge on this subject he is speaking on. As such, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

Overall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gained his credibility and ethos with providing us with vivid examples of his knowledge on the subject, his word choice, and his using of formal word correctly.