Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King’s inspiration for writing his, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was mainly to appeal to an undeniable injustice that occurred during his time. His letter was in response tos eight white clergymen, who objected to King protesting in Birmingham. Dr. King effectively crafted his counterargument after analyzing the clergymen’s unjust proposals and then he was able to present his rebuttal. Dr. King effectively formed his counterargument by first directly addressing his audience, the clergymen and then using logos, pathos and egos to present his own perspective on his opponent’s statements.

The year is 1963, the date April 16th. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is sitting in his cell in Birmingham, Alabama writing what we know today as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. In this 12 page letter, found in Writing Arguments a Rhetoric with Readings by John Ramage, John Bean, and June Johnson, Dr. King describes his outrage and disappointment with society and finally his want for society to recognize racial prejudice. In his letter, he uses Pathos, or emotional appeal, ethos, appeal to authority/reputation, and logos, appeal to logic, to help with his argument. Dr. King uses a lot of emotional appeal and diction when writing his argument so that he could appeal to his intended audience as best he could.

King’s use of many rhetorical devices in these three paragraphs of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” solidify his conviction that segregation needs to be quelled immediately. Dr. King’s explanations justify the demonstrations and protests that he is participating in. Although this was a letter meant for clergymen, Dr. King simultaneously taught all of America a very important lesson: justice is a universal natural right, and when it is denied, it needs to be demanded. Racial equality is the form of justice in this case, as segregation was the culprit that divided society into two racial groups. Thus, Dr. King successfully advocated civil rights through this letter with powerful, clever

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. motivation to write “Letter From Birmingham Jail” was to address the injustice he received during his time of his incarceration. King felt distraught and deeply offended by the treatment of the clergymen. He decided that it was useful to put his emotions on paper to express how to best explain his unlawful situation. King wrote this letter with disapproval, sorrow, and disappointment to convey his principles were wrongly tried. He used this letter to justify his reasoning for nonviolent acts of defiance against segregation. Dr. King structured his counterargument for the clergymen after listening to his view, then used ethos, logos, and pathos to make an appeal to his readers his perspective about the unfair treatment of African Americans.

During the 1960’s, racism was still a prominent problem in America. The Civil Rights Movement was under way. African Americans were fighting for their basic human rights. One of the most notable figures of the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King Jr. He fought for African American’s rights using nonviolent resistance; however, during a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King was thrown into jail. While in his jail cell, Dr. King wrote a letter to clergymen from the Birmingham jail claiming his stance on peaceful confrontation on defending African American’s human rights. In his letter, Dr. King uses rhetorical devices to strengthen his argument in his letter to the clergymen. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he argues that segregation is inhumane and is hurting the American society as a whole. All the time and energy that goes into segregation is slowing down the American society’s progress to succeed as a nation. He uses several rhetoric strategies that help adopt a tone that is both personal and logical. King was able to incorporate the rhetoric triangle into his letter and still managed to address his arguments. While using pathos, ethos, and logos, Martin Luther King Jr. was able use the clergymen’s accusations to successfully promote his own views and opinions instead.

In, “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, King writes about the criticisms placed on him by the Clergy and to all the white Americans who believe they are superior and do not wrong. For example when King writes, “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (King 3), King is speaking to the clergy who dislike his motives and actions. King is stating his innocence and that he is doing nothing wrong and that action needs to be taken in order to initiate a change. The purpose of King’s letter is not all to inspire a change in America and just address the criticism towards him and his actions but it is also a call to action. King takes on the time of a courageous, righteous, and disciplined man who

Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr in his persuasive letter, “letter from Birmingham jail” argues against segregation by using rhetorical devices. Martin Luther King Jr’s purpose is to express his struggles through segregation, he adopts an aggressive tone to get his point across to people in power.

In Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, there is a numerous amount of rhetorical strategies used throughout his essay. The use of rhetorical strategies helps make King’s piece more viable, and appealing. While he is arguing for the urgency to change segregation laws, he uses rhetorical strategies to build up his argument. Using information from the introductory paragraph, we know that Dr. King is an intelligent man considering he received a Ph.D. from Boston University. The diction King uses in this letter is exceptional; it consummately reflects that he has a Ph.D. In King’s letter he states, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Writing from the heart, expressing feelings, having a strong emotional impact on ones audience, using an appeal to emotion and logic, using facts and presenting arguments in a professional way, to the enlightenment of one's viewers; Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail; consists of three Rhetorical Strategies throughout his letter that is known and taught around the world as ETHOS, PATHOS and LOGOS. An appeal to ethics, a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader (ethos), an appeal to emotion, and a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response (Pathos), and finally, an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason (Logos); these three Rhetorical Strategies are used countless times throughout Martin Luther King’s Letter for Birmingham Jail.

For instance, in the letter, King uses the word “wait” repeatedly to reiterate what he and other blacks had to endure as a result of racial prejudice. To the blacks, the term “wait” practically means never. They have waited for more than three centuries; however, the problem of racism has yet to be resolved. The hope of eliminating prejudice and discrimination has become uncertain to them. In the same paragraphs, King also uses a repeated phrase of “when you” to build the emphasis on the brutality and unjustness of their circumstances. The purpose of this anaphora is to make the audience recognize all these resentments the blacks had to tolerate from injustice. In addition to repetition and anaphora, King also uses metaphor to differentiate the conditions that the blacks were living compared to situations where the whites were living. King has stated that the African Americans are living in a "horse-and-buggy pace," while the others are heading with "jetlike speed" towards the goal of political independence. This sentence typically means the blacks are still living in the early 20th centuries, the era of horses and buggies, while the whites are moving forward drastically. By employing these rhetorical devices, King made his audience fully understand their piteous situation and invoking their emotion of

Meanwhile, Dr. King also appeals to the logical side of the men within the letter, to lead them to the bigger picture of the injustice faced by African-Americans during this era. Dr. King uses facts and United States laws to prove that his actions were not untimely but in contrast these actions were overdue and that in fact he was not an outsider, but rather an invited guest.“So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here, I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” (King) He goes on by saying “Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants --- for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a

In Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he uses many examples of rhetorical devices in order for him to be able to reach out to the clergymen in the way he wishes to. He wants to get his point, that there should be a strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, across without upsetting his readers. King uses many examples of ethos, pathos, and parallelism in order for him to convince his readers that nonviolence in the answer.

Martin Luther King Jr., a peaceful advocate for civil rights, was jailed for his non-violent protest against segregation. During his stay at the Birmingham Jail, a group of religious leaders publically attacked him with criticisms for his peaceful protest. As a counter attack, King wrote 'The Letter From Birmingham Jail'. This counter was successful for King was able to analyze and address his audience, refer to historical and religious figures and utilize anaphoras, making this letter, one of the most impressive argumentative essays.

Dr. King utilized two critical thinking elements within his speech that would allow his words to jump off paper as well as the podium he spoke from. The ability for him to be extremely emotive with his words would allow for the audience of the world to become empathetic towards the plight of the “negro”. His words served the purpose of conjuring up support towards promoting equality amongst all people but furthermore stressing that we as a nation we were not and had not fulfilled the words of the decree of the Emancipation Proclamation. Dr. King stated, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice…. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.”