It was during this time that Dr. King, refusing to sit idly by, wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, one of the most inspiring documents in history. He takes up for his cause in Birmingham, and his belief that nonviolent direct action is the best way to make changes happen. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. Recent flashcard sets. Besides the use of pathos, King uses repetition to enhance the effectiveness of his argument. In parallel structure, a writer repeats the same pattern of words or/and pattern of grammatical structure. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. This protest, his subsequent arrest, and the clergymens public statement ostensibly make up the rhetorical exigence, but it truly stems from a much larger and dangerous situation at hand: the overwhelming state of anti-black prejudice spread socially, systematically, and legislatively in America since the countrys implementation of slavery in Jamestown, 1619. Dr. King was arrested, and put in jail in Birmingham where he wrote a letter to the clergymen telling them how long Blacks were supposed to wait for their God giving rights and not to be force and treated differently after, In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail from jail in Birmingham, Alabama in response to a public statement issued by eight white clergyman calling his actions unwise and untimely. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. you can use them for inspiration and simplify your student life. In order to properly convey his response to the questions proposed by the religious leaders of Birmingham, Dr. King uses it to draw comparisons which magnifies an idea, but it also commends one and disparages the other. was initially the eight clergymen of Birmingham, all white and in positions of religious leadership. King does this in an effective and logical way. This comes to endanger our entire society. The amount of original essays that we did for our clients, The amount of original essays that we did for our clients. The continuous mistreatment of African Americans for over a century was, at last, deeply questioned and challenged nationwide with the growing popularity of the Civil Rights movement, and the topic of equality for all had divided the country. How does this comparison appropriately justify. With the use of King's rhetorical devices, he described the ways of the Birmingham community and their beliefs, connected to the reader on an emotional level, and brought to light the overall issues dealing with segregation., The letter was ostensibly conceived in response to a letter that had recently run in a local newspaper which had claimed that the protest were "unwise and untimely." Throughout Kings letter, he used various ways of persuasive strategies: pathos, logos, and ethos. Likewise, King creates logos as he employs another antithetical statement that demonstrates the timeliness of his argument: Never voluntarily given by the oppressor must be demanded by the oppressed; Jet-like speed horse-and-buggy pace (518). With this addressed, his audience was truly the population of the United States, especially Birmingham, with a focus on those who withheld and complied with the oppression of African American citizens, even if not intentionally. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., King addressed the concerns of the white clergy and gave support to the direct action committed by African Americans. Original: Apr 16, 2013. Martin Luther Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail addresses his fellow clergymen and others who critiqued him for his actions during this time. The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. In paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses. Saying it that way magnifies the imperative difference between the two types of laws. The problem is that this kind of thinking can spread and infect other people to believe this is acceptable. All of these factors influence each other to shape rhetoric, which Bitzer describes as, pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself (3), with Martin Luther Kings. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. King is not speaking only of racism; he is speaking of injustice in general. In. Martin Luther King then goes on to make an analogy to the Bible, portraying Apostle Pauls proliferation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in parallel to his own efforts, stating, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown (1). Martin Luther King Jr. uses both logical and emotional appeals in order for all his listeners to be able to relate and contemplate his speeches. To get a high-quality original essay, click here. King concludes with optimism about the future of the relationship between the currently segregated blacks and whites. There are three main considerations to make while analysing a rhetorical situation: the constraints, the exigence, and the audience. However, this constraint did not ultimately halt the spread of Kings message nation-wide, as it became a persuasive landmark of the civil rights movement, likely due to both his impactful position and persuasive use of rhetoric. King chose to write this for a reason; to resonate with those who were not his enemies but who held back the movement through compliance. To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. Despite his support, Martin Luthers audience is one of the largest constraints in his rhetorical situation. Parallelism, in the way King uses it, connects what seems like small problems to a larger issue. Who was he truly writing for? In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King implements antithesis -- along with his background as a minister -- to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Southern clergymen, as he attempts to further diverge the two diametric rationales; thus, he creates logos as he appeals to the audience's logical side and urges African-Americans to act punctual in their Letter from Birmingham Jail; McAuley ELA I HON. MLKs use of pathos and repetition is an effective way to persuade his audience about his position on civil disobedience. Lincoln says, The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. He didn 't know if people would remember what Lincoln said on November 19, 1863 but he said don 't forget that the soldiers lost their lives. In the letter, King appeals for unity against racism in society, while he wants to fight for Human Rights, using ethos. Get professional help and free up your time for more important things. The audience of Letter From Birmingham Jail was initially the eight clergymen of Birmingham, all white and in positions of religious leadership. This use of parallelism draws on the emotions of personal experiences to persuade that segregation is a problem in a myriad of ways. In Kings speech he says, Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country (King Page 6). Dr. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character. Dr. King uses his own words to describe what he wants the nation to look like in the future. In this way, King juxtaposes the unscrupulous principles of the clergy with his righteous beliefs to highlight the threat of injustice, which he seeks to combat with hope. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. The topic of Dr. Kings letters from a Birmingham prison is the nonviolent protest being done in Birmingham, Alabama in the fight for African Americans civil rights. The anaphora "If you were to" is meant to inspire his readers to emp. In his letter King effectively manipulates language and tone to strengthen his argument against the complaints of the clergyman and successfully address the white people. Malcolm X, on the other hand, grew up in a rather hostile environment with barely enough schooling. On the other hand, logical appeals helps to grasp the concept better and provides facts that prove it to be true. Mistreatment of this kind is labeled as racial discrimination. He shows logos by giving a sense of hope to the people that better things will come in time. Its important to note that his initial readers/supporters greatly impacted the scope of his audience, spreading the letter through handouts, flyers, and press, in the hopes that others would be impacted for the better by the weight of the exigence at hand. IvyMoose is the largest stock of essay samples on lots of topics and for any discipline. King defends his primary thesis all throughout the length of his letter, and the arguments that he has made to prove that his thesis is true and valid will be the focus of this rhetorical analysis. Dr. King often used repetition and parallel construction to great emotional effect when he spoke. Just as well, King uses his aspirations to create ideas within the listeners. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and His Letter from Birmingham Jail is a work that he wrote while incarcerated in the Birmingham City Jail in response to criticism from Alabama clergymen. For example, to use parallelism in a sentence in which you list a series of elements, each element typically has the same form. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive. The following well-known adage is an example of parallelism: "Give a . Right after that, he alludes to another American writing, the Declaration of. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust(Barnet and Bedau 742). Martin Luther King responds to the subjectivity of law and the issue he paramounts by using precise and impactful rhetoric from inside of his jail cell. Explain why the examples fit your chosen reason. Amidst the intense Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and put in solitary confinement for peacefully protesting racial discrimination and injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. The clergymen along with others are addressed in an assertive tone allowing them to fully understand why his actions are justified. Kings use of pathos gives him the ability to encourage his fellow civil rights activists, evoke empathy in white conservatives, and allow the eight clergymen and the rest of his national audience to feel compassion towards the issue. He is a firm believer that Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere (262). Both works utilizes the persuasive techniques of pathos in Dream and logos in Birmingham. Both of the works had a powerful message that brought faith to many. is undeniably effective at responding to the rhetorical situation at hand. Here, King offers disparate hypotheticals to illustrate the necessity for brevity in his acts. He uses a large number of rhetorical devices in his letter to reach his goal, including point of view, imagery, and rhetorical questions.
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