Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written by Martin Luther King Jr. He wrote this as a reply to “A Letter from the Clergy” which was written by eight clergymen. This essay’s style is inspirational. “Let us all hope that dark clouds of racial prejudice…over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty” (King 500-501). King used an inspirational style to accomplish his goal, which was to focus on calling people to act and understand why he is doing nonviolent and peaceful protests than to criticize complacent people. King also justifies his actions for civil disobedience with the precedent set by the Boston Tea Party. He wants his audience to see him as a credible and understanding person with a righteous cause. King does this by …show more content…

“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait’” (King 491). Logos is used to show how unjust laws should be disobeyed and not “peacefully obeyed” (Clergymen 486). King does this by stating many reasons and justifying them with concrete evidence and not with emotion. “Let us consider a more concrete example…be considered democratically structured” (King 492-493)? Kings tone shifts several times throughout his essay. He starts off polite “since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth…” (King 488). King then transitions to a confident tone towards the middle. “Let us consider a more concrete example…be considered democratically structured” (King 492-493)? He then sets a restless tone in the middle with “when you have vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim…” (King 491). Finally, he ends with a hopeful tone. “Let us all hope that dark clouds of racial prejudice…over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty” (King

Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail
295 Words | 2 Pages
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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Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail
401 Words | 2 Pages
However, King’s argument is strong in passion and emotion just as it is filled with logic. Throughout the passage King appeals to logos and refers the laws to either be “just” or “unjust”. In his letter, King writes “You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This
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Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail
691 Words | 3 Pages
“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from the Birmingham Jail he brings a metaphor to describe a unique form and well-spoken quote of how justice should be. When writing in his letter he used many elements to give his letter a meaning to those who read it. He included the bible as a religious aspect to support those. He also uses life events and description to describe times that have happened or may have happened to someone. It lets the reader imagine what may occur.
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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail
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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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Summary Of Martin Luther King Letter From Birmingham Jail
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King needs to give the clergymen and all his readers a reason to listen to him and show them that he is believable. To do this King tells his audience that he is the “president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. [They] have eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights” (King). This statement shows the audience that he has first-hand experience through the organizations he is involved with and tells the audience through this experience he sees and hear of the unjust treatment to the black citizens in the South first hand which gives the audience a reason to listen to what King has to say. Second, King effectively uses pathos from Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle and the appeal to emotions fallacy within his letter in order to further help convince his audience that his actions of peaceful demonstrations are justified in his fight for civil rights.
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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail
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In his intro he talks about a statement that he heard while he was confined in Birmingham city jail “… calling my [Martin Luther King] present activities were “unwise and untimely” (pg. 1). His response to the statement was, “If I sought to answer all criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.”(pg. 1), which is a great example of logos. Logos is the appeal to logic, which helps when writing something to persuade someone, because the part of the audience that is against him might think that logically he is right. It also increases the chance that King’s audience will read Kings Letter with more of an open mind.
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Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail
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If he had not explained to his daughter about why she could not go to the park, his daughter could have been harmed which could’ve caused more emotional stress on King. King includes logos in his speech by saying “Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws” (6). This is a decision made by the Supreme Court! How could the Supreme Court not follow their own rules? They do not set a good example for others because they cannot even follow their own rules, yet they still managed to complain about the Negroes.
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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail
1161 Words | 5 Pages
In King’s essay, “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, King brilliantly employs the use of several strategies that are pivotal in successfully influencing critics of his philosophical views on civil disobedience. In the letter, King expresses his extreme disappointment over the criticism of his leadership by Alabama clergymen, his understanding of why oppressed people must resist their oppression, and his deep faith in the fundamental decency of all Americans. King implements idea from philosophers, such as Socrates, to make his dissertation. King begins with differentiating between just and unjust laws.
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What Is Mlk Thesis In Letter From Birmingham Jail
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When the clergymen complain and call his actions extreme. King begins to emphasize how he was sad that they thought of him that way but wasn’t anymore until he thought it over. He explains to them about two forces and how he stands in the middle of
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Ethos In Letter From Birmingham Jail
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King shows Ethos in his letter by writing back to the clergy men who had objections against King’s protest in Birmingham. They basically called him an outsider but by establishing his credibility, King shows that he is in fact an
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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail
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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Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail
1166 Words | 5 Pages
At the end of his letter he addresses the clergymen " I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergymen and a Christian brother" (paragraph 7). This statement makes a claim the king wants to meet these seven clergymen in person and speak about the issues he wrote in this letter. Another rhetorical tool king uses in his letter are similes. This rhetorical tool helps king compare two things and address the point as he sees it. " Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek" (paragraph 3).
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Historical And Biblical Allusions In Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail
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On page 285 King says, “Supreme Court 's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws” King’s allusion reinforces the facts of his argument by directing the critical event of the decision made in 1954. It shows that the decisions that are being made are not helping the problem that Birmingham has, it is only making the segregation problems worse. It’s efficient because it shows that the courts have been making laws that are what the called just but, in reality, they are anything, but just they are unjust laws that shouldn’t be
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Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr.
957 Words | 4 Pages
Throughout King’s argument, he appealed his own ethos to his opponents by saying “I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth”. Dr.
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I Have A Dream Speech Ethos Pathos Logos
874 Words | 4 Pages
Martin Luther uses logos effectively throughout his speech. Dr. King says,“ But one hundred years later, the Negro is not free” ( Luther). The fact is that one hundred year has past still no improvement on the situation. Another example is the analogy “ America has given the Negro people a bad check a check which has not come back marked insufficient funds”( King).He reasons that most people are understanding lack of money. King’s speech was effectively because of how he formatted his speech.
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Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail