A persuasive work comes from the need to persuade others of the goal or perspective they wish to provide in the work. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a famous open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. After he was arrested for participating a nonviolent protest in Birmingham, Alabama as part of the Civil Rights Movement, he wrote this letter to address several concerns he had about the concepts of racial segregation and the ideas of racism present in America at the time, particularly the South. Pathos is used by Martin Luther King, Jr., to appeal to the audience of “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” connecting their religious loyalty and sense of honor to his campaign to end segregation and racism. King links the suffering of his people at the behest of the Birmingham police force to his audience’s praise at their actions, making them feel horrible for applauding such an act. Scott Russel Sanders, in his autobiographical memoir "Under the Influence," uses the nonfiction format to indirectly appeal to his audience to avoid a life of alcoholism. The story itself deals with the author's life as a child, dealing with his alcoholic father; the opening words are "my father drank." (p. 733). This establishes the problem that the story will tackle, and regardless of how autobiographical and narrative the story is, this is till the issue addressed by the story. Sanders uses narrative techniques such as detailed chronological events and personal admission to provide a case study of the destructive nature of alcohol. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is one of the more well-known examples of satire in English literature. In it, Swift gently suggests that the people of Ireland could sell their children to the rich to eat as food. This practice is meant to prevent poor children from being a burden on their parents, and provide a public benefit. The essay, in a metafictional way, is meant to persuade the audience to mute their harsh perspectives on the poor, and to distrust the insane suggestions of people who wanted to get Ireland out of the harsh economic straits they were encountering at the time.
The writer must employ the careful use of literary devices and techniques to get their particular message across. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," metaphors such as Biblical references and other such allusions appeal to the reader's sense of Biblical loyalty by painting King's crusade as similar to other righteous Biblical crusades, using pathos to play on their sympathies toward these religious figures. King’s use of metaphor has the effect of putting his appeals in a more familiar perspective to the clergymen who are his audience; in the third paragraph, he compares his presence in Birmingham to the Biblical examples of “the prophets of the eighth century BC [who] left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world” (King, 1963). Sanders spares no expense in describing just how awful his father became when drunk; "My father, when drunk, was neither funny nor honest; he was pathetic, frightening, deceitful" (p. 735). By contrasting the good descriptors with the bad, he demonstrates just how far his father falls when alcohol is introduced as a factor. His father was described as being "so playful and competent and kind when sober" (p. 737). This is meant to contrast the potentially good father he could be with the drunken brute that he became. Often, he father seemed "possessed by demons" when drunk, which further added to Sanders' unfortunate and arduous childhood (p. 739). Using this harsh and dangerous metaphor, he shows the extent to which his father would change as a result of drinking. This damage done to his father because of his drinking leads him to develop negative feelings and bitterness of his own - “Because the mom and pop who ran the dump were neighbors of oursI hated them all the most for poisoning my father. I wanted to sneak in their store and smash the bottles and set fire to the place” (p. 737) The lasting effects of Sanders' father's alcoholism are also made clear, since the trauma that Sanders felt from his father's drunken rages “will continue as long as memory holds” (p. 733). Swift uses techniques such as irony to demonstrate that such a harsh proposal was not outside of the realm of reason in the politics of the time. In his work, Swift engages his subject with full seriousness, which makes the satire even more effective. The irony comes from treating such an obviously disgusting and irrational subject as something that someone could seriously consider; in the essay, he describes many detailed methods of preparing the children as food, as well as financial calculations that state the policy would work. He even lampoons the predatory perspectives of landlords in sentences like "I grant this food may be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who as they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children" (Swift). These methods are similar to the ones other politicians were using at the time.
The ultimate purpose of these literary techniques is to change the perspective of the audience. King’s use of emotional appeals of sympathy, and his humility in the presentation of his argument makes the audience feel guilty for opposing his position, and guilty for not coming to this righteous man’s simple request for aid sooner. In Sanders' work, the goal is to bring the audience through the experiences that he had as a child to demonstrate just how dangerous and hazardous alcoholism can be to a family. In this way, he seeks to subtly discourage people from taking up the habit, as they may not even know what they are doing. Sanders' father, for example, is a perfectly nice and loving person when he is sober, but turns into a literal "demon" when he drinks. It is for these reasons that alcoholism is denounced in "Under the Influence." By using these arguments to advocate such a disgusting course of action, Swift means to show just how silly and counterproductive these methods are. The persuasion, then, in this case, is to show the audience that these particular attitudes towards the poor, as well as such extreme and nonsensical plans to fix the economy, will not work. Just as the people look at "A Modest Proposal" with a jaundiced eye, they need to hold that same skepticism to the politicians who are suggesting these kinds of policies in the same way.
Works Cited
King, Martin Luther. "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
Sanders, Scott Russel. "Under the Influence."
Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal."
