Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech shows powerful examples of logos and pathos. His effectiveness relies heavily on his usage of these two ways to explain the pain and suffering of segregation. By him capturing his true life’s reality through pity and credible sources allows him to become successful in attempting to end the racism crisis. King states that, “when our republic was writing the Declaration of Independence, they were making a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights’ of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Logos is the prime example of King using this event of writing the Declaration of Independence.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in order to bring attention to the racial prejudice that was occurring in America. In his letter, King discussed his and his family’s experiences with racism. He also justified him protesting in Birmingham. In addition, this influential individual wrote about his Christian faith and how it influenced some of his behavior.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King uses multiple devices of persuasive rhetoric in order to fight injustice. King, a reverend, was a large advocate for civil rights in midst of the great movement calling for equality among all men and women. His letter is widely renowned for King’s proclamation that “in any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of facts to determine whether injustice exists, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action” (par. 6). His usage of tone and carefully placed anaphora aid King in this persuasive essay by further providing insight and evidence that support King’s four points. From Critical Thinking to Argument defines tone as “attitude towards self, topic, and

“Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King, Jr. explains the vital Birmingham campaign and features the inconceivable Letter from Birmingham Jail. Despite the fact of always positive in tone, it deals with the absoluteness of a campaign that is now viewed as pivotal to the success of the American Civil Rights Movement but was anything but assured in its own time. That King acknowledges this reality while placing it in a constructive context all the while advancing his affirmative, forward-looking message is a confirmation to his vision and incredibly magnanimous perseverance. On April 16, 1963, as the violent events of the Birmingham movement unraveled in the city, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell in return to local clerical leaders’ criticism of the campaign.

Arguments are made regularly on diverse topics such as racism, homosexuality and so on. People argue their point through writing and images such as, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr, “How it feels to be colored me” by Zora Neale, and the second image. Writing and images can both express an argument, depending on your stance and the rhetorical strategies by strengthening the argument. In the second image you see posters that seem to be from a march, the words written on them appeal to an allusion.

Found in his letter titled “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. told his clergymen, “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights” (381). His clergymen criticized his position to desegregation in the United States (1958-1968) arguing it was “untimely”. Easy for the clergymen to say since they were not the race targeted to segregation. Before King’s victory to desegregation, was a rational writer David Thoreau (b. 1817-1862). Thoreau lived during two prevalent injustices in the United States: slavery (1620-1865) and the Mexican War (1846-1848).

During the civil rights movement many influential people became prominent figureheads for equal rights and are now studied in schools across the nation. These leaders risked their lives for their cause in the fight for freedom and equality and are now regarded as some of the most influential people of their time. Among these heroes is Martin Luther King Junior, a non-violent activist for black rights. Today King is a well known hero, studied in many schools both historically and literary. He is probably as well known as a civil rights activist as much as he is known as the author of A Letter from Birmingham Jail, a letter written to inform and persuade others of the importance of civil rights.

On Wednesday, September 28th, I led a seminar analyzing two pieces of work from the Liberal Studies Reader for LIBS 7001. The first, To My Old Master, is a letter written from the point of view of an emancipated slave, Jourdon Anderson, in response to his old master from Big Spring, Tennessee asking Anderson to return to work for him. The second, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, written by Martin Luther King Jr., is a response to a letter from a group of Alabama clergymen, who critique King for being “unwise and untimely” (King, 1963) in his direct action approach protesting the racial segregation and discrimination that was prevalent in Birmingham. Kathy Dam, Romolo Ferrari, Mike Pendon, Alexey Skiba, and I focused our analysis and discussion

Racial segregation was a major issue that alarmed the black community in the 1960s. Martin Luther King could not just sit and watch his own race get discriminated any longer; he was a well-known peaceful leader who led the black community in nonviolent protests. He was the voice of the discriminated, and stood up for the injustice thrown to his race. Being a Baptist minister, he could only peacefully evoke the idea of equality and unity among the races by communicating and marching. With his influences, thousands of African Americans stood by his side to form a nonviolent resistance towards segregation.

In his letter, written in Birmingham City Jail on 16th April, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. touches a serious problem, which is inequality between white and black people; it is a response to a clergymen statement about activities that took place in their times. The church called them „unwise and untimely” and King decided to answer to this criticism, although he normally would not do that, as he received many hateful and judgmental comments on his actions and himself and it would have taken a lot of time and effort to notice all of them. First of all, the clergymen talk about how badly in time are presented those activities when they should have been more concerned about what they actually want to change. Spending time on debating about how

The letter that Dr. Martin Luther King wrote at the Birmingham Jail was very powerful to me. Things I took away from this letter is that people back then were discriminated even worse than they are now. Mr. King didn’t want violence protest that would eventually turn into riots, he always wanted the protests to be peaceful. This letter was a response to white men who criticized his tactics, I think King wrote this letter to explain the goal of his non-violent protest and that they were necessary. Dr. King never wanted violence to solve the problems black people faced, he just wanted them to be treated fairly like the whites.

Equal rights protester Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.” In 1963, King was arrested for protesting in Birmingham and was put in jail. During that period, he had a lot of spare time and wrote a long and powerful letter full of stylistic elements to church leaders in Birmingham who had criticized him for leading a protest. They made public statements opposing King and his methods for achieving change, but King believed that they misjudged his cause and ways of doing. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses many stylistic elements including convincing examples and keen figurative language to influence his reader to agree with his point in "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, “Time itself is neutral; it can either be used destructively or constructively... Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts of man... We must use time creatively in the knowledge that time is always ripe to do right.” King is absolutely right, here; in order to make any progress or improvement, one needs to use time correctly in order to get a positive response.

Essay #2: Argumentative Analysis Martin Luther King Jr. introduced a very controversial argument about why he believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”(264). In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King stated that justice is never given by the oppressor and the reason why his protests were very relevant and wise was because the issues needed to be addressed right then and not later. Moving along throughout his entire letter his primary thesis seemed to be that if the people wanted to be free from racial injustice they needed to participate in nonviolent protests. Given his setting and atmosphere, MLK did an extremely impressive job of using kairos and other rhetorical techniques in his piece.

Logos, or logical appeal, uses a clear line of reasoning supported by evidence, such as facts or data. Pathos, or emotional appeal, uses loaded or charged language and other devices to arouse emotions. Using these, he influenced people to follow him. If he would not have spoken up, the world could have ended up still being segregated today. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used pathos and logos in his speech to draw in people so