Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'

By addressing his opponents in a companionable way as “Fellow Clergymen” King sends the message that he is willing to have a serious civilized discussion. And the audience is persuaded to listen to their colleague. Just as a medical doctor is obligated to discuss the cure to an illness with another doctor. The eight clergymen feel compelled to listen to King because both share the same profession and love for God. Following the establishment of King’s authority, he proceeds to maintain and emphasize the religious references throughout his letter to assure his appeal among the clergymen.

While contained at Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an open letter encouraging and defending a nonviolent approach to dealing with racism. Martin Luther King Jr. being known as a public figure who has impacted the way America as a whole treats African-Americans. Having lived through a time when his rights, as well as every person of color didn’t match to their fellow Americans, he felt the need to advocate. The letter has been considered as one of the best argument pieces, persuading and convincing many, due to diction and usage of rhetorical strategies. As Martin Luther King begins this piece he is notably respectful.

He shows his concerns for the African American community by expressing their thoughts and feelings because they feel as if they have no voice. He was their voice. Throughout the “letter” Dr. King demonstrated pathos by engaging his readers of the struggle of being an African American descent. Dr. King starts off by letting his readers know that he was confined during the time of the letter was written and he was addressing the eight clergymen who called his action of a peaceful protest “untimely and unwise”. (King Jr., p. 645) However, he continues to explain his reason for being in Birmingham by saying that injustice was present and he could not just sit in another state and watch it;” Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (King Jr., p. 645) Dr. King was an activist and he showed support where ever and whenever he was invited, therefore he explains the reason why he was in Birmingham.

The writing is on a deeper level and is forcing his readers into haunted places of their own minds. I think all of this contributed to his well-deserved Man Booker Prize. Coetzee has proven how passionate he is about his writing and the use of the English language is genius and on a very educated level. The art of making all that misery and suffering sound beautiful and romantic is a skill well portrayed as well as his ability to leave you questioning your own values and the simplicity in life. Coetzee also shows his extreme intelligence and opens a deeper understanding of the English language by using words forgotten by most.

Of the experiences and sentiment John Lewis delivered within his words the usage of ethos, logos, and pathos becomes clearly visible. Lewis uses ethics and logic when he expressed a bill was needed to ensure equality. The examples used to explain police brutality and abuse of authority conceive an emotional visual inflicting the audience to personally feel it. There was not any room for patience, only for change. Another captivating speaker is reputable Martin Luther King whom enticed a mass public with influential persuasive language.

The Letter from Birmingham Jail and the I have a Dream Speech, both written by Martin Luther King Jr., explain the same message to people in two different ways. The Letter from Birmingham Jail was to write a letter to defend the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. He wrote this because he wants African Americans to come together and peacefully protest the unjust laws that are in place. On the other hand, his speech was to a large group of citizens, black and white, fighting for freedom, equality, justice and love. He used many rhetorical devices in his speech and letter that compared the two, and to show the differences in a clear way.

In the book, ‘The Death Cure’, by James Dashner there are an adequate amount of figures of speech which are pretty interesting.Figures of speech is a good strategy writers intelligently manipulate in order to keep interest and suspense. James Dashner mainly used hyberboleshyperboles, metaphors and personification since it lets the reader close their eyes and imagine them being in the book. Figures of speech helps the reader feel like they are understanding what the characters are experiencing. First off, Dashner used personification to let the reader experience the scene. “Minho ignored him, fighting tooth and nail until the group finally stopped in front of a door’’ (page 39) .

It shows the police brutality that was going on, the challenges AAs had to face, and the adversity that was going on. To justify his desire for racial justice and equality, he uses ethical, emotional and logical appeals. The purpose of the letter was to address one of the biggest issues Birmingham was facing at the time. He begins by stating his point in nonviolent protests and that it is a lawful act as blacks civil rights movement. He further explains his motives saying that it is time for black men to have the same rights as whites.

Even though he was assassinated, people still continued trying to make his dream real, which was really inspiring for everyone. Martin Luther King Jr. used many rhetorical devices, but he mainly used vocabulary, which was a really great benefit because that made him look smarter which broke the stereotypes and that made people think more differently than before,

However, unlike the likes of other black revolutionaries of the time, such as Malcolm X, MLK was an advocate of peaceful protests even as the white people broke out with violence towards the African American community with every step they took in the war for equality. “‘As my sufferings mounted,’ Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, ‘I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force’” (Bromell, 2013, p.