Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

Civil rights activist, Martin Luther king Jr., in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, responds to the clergymen who criticized his work and ideas. King’s purpose is to achieve an understanding for the desire of freedom. He expresses a confident tone in order to appeal to similar feelings the clergymen may have when he talks about freedom to help bond brotherhood.
Throughout the beginning of the text, King explains why he is in Birmingham and because now is the time to take action, therefore he uses formal language to create a familiar or colloquial diction. He explains “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights.” This is an overstatement because rights have been given to them because they are not completely exiled from society. He goes on to add “Actually, time itself is neutral, it can be used either destructively or constructively.” He stresses the current time was

When he is called an extremist in his views he says “We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime- the crime of extremism.” This is a use of irony on his behalf because he is comparing his extremist views to those who were crucified which is ironic because the clergymen have accused King of this crime even though this supposed crime was the result of crucifying on Calvary’s Hill. When he covers the order sustained by police he says “I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes.” This is the use of a hyperbole because by saying the dogs were sinking their teeth it may not entirely mean every nonviolent negro was being harassed so viciously, but he stresses his point better this way. Extremism and violence add to King’s stressed point he is trying to make and he uses formal as well as cacophonous diction to create this