Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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The letter from Birmingham jail by Dr. Marin Luther King was written as a response of King to ten criticisms made against the Southern Christian leaders and King’s participation in demonstration in Birmingham. King handled many rhetorical devices to convince his opponents such as white clergymen with his rights to protest and create tension for direct action to achieve the racial justice. The devices fluctuate between logos and ethos in clever way to appeal to his audience and criticize them at the same time. King provided logical supports such as biblical figures historical and philosophical references. In my essay, I will point out some of the rhetorical devices and the colorful words used by King. First of all, King mentioned that …show more content…

King emphasized that policemen who used the curse young and old women Negroes, who handled un-human ways to treat Negroes in jails and who use fierce methods to deal with nonviolence Negroes didn’t deserve any commends. Kings stated that “I am sorry that I can’ join you in your praise for the police department”. King didn’t believe that clergymen commended the oppressor and blamed the victims. He enforced them to face their false praise for the hands of segregation. In addition, He urged them to perceive that their praising for the brutality could aggravate the discrimination. In this part King used logic device to illustrate his opponent with their un-fair status. King also handled Ethos device when he expressed his opposition to the clergymen and said “I am sorry”. He was well educated person and he attracted his opponent by respecting them. King practiced an Ethos way when he said “Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice”. King didn’t say ”Will you be extremists for the preservation of injustice”. King wanted to generalize that anyone sustained the injustice, he would consider as an extremist. King didn’t want to offend the clergymen who were the real extremists. This was another way to respect the audience. King used the Ethos device when he thanked white people stood before the Negroes. He said “I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of this social revolution”. King used elegant way to attract more whites to his side. He showed them how he appreciated their suffering from police violence because they loved Negros. Also, King said that “I am afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time”. He handled the Ethos device to illustrate that their time is as important as the topic he was arguing

Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail
198 Words | 1 Pages
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King uses many forms of rhetorical devices in his letter in order to effectively make impacts on his audience. In his counterargument against the praises towards the Birmingham police force, King brings new lights of the police force to the public eye. He uses parallelism to target his audience and change the public opinion on the police force “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 ... if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together”(King 561-570). King counter the praises that states the police kept “order” for the public and prevented any violence to take place,
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Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” addresses to the entire country to persuade each and every one of them to take action on the civil right cause. In the first part of the letter, King’s journey was stated and defended to help his fellows on justice. Proceedingly, he challenges his view as an outsider, which became very effective in his argument. He called to action several group of people and for them to consider a peaceful protest movement for the injustice of African Americans. With a calculated, yet urgent tone he was able to address the concerns of his audience.
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In April of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. found himself in the public spotlight, as he and a group of supporters engaged in civil disobedience, protesting in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. King and the other protesters were jailed, and here it was that Martin Luther King Jr. crafted the text “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Kings letter was a response to the clergyman of Birmingham, who previously posted their own writing in the Birmingham newspaper denouncing the direct action of protesting as “untimely” amongst other complaints(King). By jailing King and publishing a criticism of the actions in which King led, the city leaders and clergyman created a platform for King to reach an audience much broader than to whom his letter is addressed. King uses the platform, to intelligently refute the claims of the clergymen, using the rhetorical devices of
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In King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” addressed to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison, he uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos, pathos, and logos throughout the letter and language that invokes a sense to the clergymen's hypocrisy. Once he points out the gesture of hypocrisy, the argument for the protests becomes wide as he shifts the tone in the letter and starts to include a larger audience that would be known to agree with him directly. Richard P. Fulkerson, an Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of Composition in East Texas State University explains more clearly in one of his quarterly journal speeches that King's “letter was designed apparently as a refutative response to the clergymen.” Furthermore, Fulkerson states that
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Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to eight white clergymen in response to their public statement where they stated their concerns about the actions of the demonstrators in their city. The clergymen called King’s actions “unwise and untimely,” they considered him an outsider and an extremist; this is what grabbed King’s attention when he went to jail and saw the statement made by these clergymen, he decided that these religious men were “genuine good [willed and their] criticisms [were] sincerely set forth” (King) therefore King chose to answer their concerns in his letter. In Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail he fights for the right of civil rights by effectively using Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle and fallacies such as
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In 1963, King was arrested and sent to jail after protesting blacks’ rights in Birmingham, Alabama. In jail, King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” which was towards the clergymen that believed that blacks should not be allowed to protest for their rights. This letter was filled with reasons why the blacks should not be told to wait for their change, which is why the strongest paragraph in King’s letter would be on page 6 when King mentioned that the blacks are always told by white leaders that if they wait, they will finally gain their rights. The blacks had believed them when they said this and yet, nothing happened after waiting. They tried their best to keep it professional by not bringing any violence which led them to protesting, however,
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1226 Words | 5 Pages
King disagrees with these criticisms and goes on to explain that if he people keep delaying the fight for freedom then it will never happen. He says that black people have waited for “more than 340 years”.(King 3) Another topic that King mentions is the fact that he wants white people to uphold the law but he is fine with black people disobeying the law. He addresses this issue by comparing the difference between a just and an unjust law. A just law is a law that upholds human dignity but an unjust law is a law that hurts or oppresses. He makes a comparison to Nazi Germany where what the Germans were doing was considered “legal” and he says that he would've supported to the oppressed class had he lived there.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a lengthy letter called "Letter from Birmingham Jail," to respond to a public statement of concern which was expressed by eight white clergymen from the South. In this letter, King defends his action and also describes how his nonviolent direct action is an effective way to resist against racism and segregation. In paragraph 14 and 15 of his letter, King uses parallelism and historical allusions to emphasize the blatant cruelties that colored people faced which create pathos and to express his thoughts for obeying and breaking “just or unjust” laws. In paragraph 14, King connects with Pathos, when he shows examples of painful experiences that the colored people, including himself, felt.
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Additionally, King showed that the actions of the disaffected white leaders were not far from the actions of our world’s, prejudice
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842 Words | 4 Pages
They only brought to the surface the hidden tension that were already alive (King, par. 19). Because society must protect the injustice civics and punish the blockers. He considered this was a healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action, but this approach was being termed extremist. There have been many people in the world that have been labeled extremist that have made a huge impact. Finally, he had gained satisfaction from this letter, because of Jesus was an extremist for love, Amos was an extremist for justice, and Paul was an extremist for the Christian gospel (King, par.
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While in solitary confinement for nearly 8 days, reverend and social justice activist, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to the criticism he received for his non-violent protests. Several clergy who negatively critiqued King’s approach of seeking justice, wrote A Call for Unity, arguing that his protests were senseless and improper. Within the article, the clergymen provide nine different critiques that asserted how King’s protest are invalid, uneffective, and simply unintelligent in the fight for obtaining justice and equity for individuals of color. His letter has become one of the most profound pieces of literature of the 20th century, as King uses vivid examples and eloquent rhetorical devices to counter all nine arguments.
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In “A Letter From A Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr defends his use of nonviolent protest in order to accomplish racial equality. In the letter, Dr. King uses ethos, diction, and allusions when defending nonviolent protest which makes his argument really strong. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. He uses ethos to build up credibility.
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1060 Words | 5 Pages
In paragraphs 33 to 44 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s response to “A Call for Unity,” a declaration by eight clergymen, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), he expresses that despite his love for the church, he is disappointed with its lack of action regarding the Civil Rights Movement. Through powerful, emotionally-loaded diction, syntax, and figurative language, King adopts a disheartened tone later shifts into a determined tone in order to express and reflect on his disappointment with the church’s inaction and his goals for the future. King begins this section by bluntly stating that he is “greatly disappointed” (33) with the church, though he “will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen” (33). By appealing to ethos and informing the audience of his history with the church, he indicates that he is not criticizing the church for his own sake, but for the good of the church.
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In this quote, Martin Luther stated that his critics disagreed with his decision to hold demonstrations in Birmingham but managed to weaken these claims by exposing the hypocrisy within them. He does this numerous times within the letter, using a persuasive structure to dismantle the opposition’s arguments. Throughout the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King also used metaphors and comparisons to bring attention to
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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail