Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

Within this quote there are multiple metaphors that help bolden King’s thoughts: “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination,” “island of poverty,” and “vast ocean of material prosperity.” These metaphors explain how it still felt nearly impossible to end discrimination, and how Negroes are on their own with no support. The use of the metaphors display a deeper and stronger meaning to the topics that King was passionate about. These rhetorical devices brought to the non-colored portion of the audience’s attention of how difficult the life of a Negro was and that freeing the slaves one hundred years ago was not enough.

Martin Luther King Jr. explains why nothing has changed since the Emancipation Proclamation by using rhetorical strategies. He uses logical appeals to show that we have been waiting far too long without any change. He also uses emotional appeals to show the audience what Negroes everywhere are going through so that the audience will want to make a change.

Dr. King used pathos and logos as well as ethos in his speech to appeal to the audience in a more emotional way. He mostly attempts to appeal to the audiences’ emotions, fears, and desires. When King repeats with the infamously famous quote, “I have a dream,” he stresses a sense of sympathy and hope towards the African American population during that time period. King states that the, “Negro…finds himself in exile in his own land.” In this phrase, King yields compassion as one can see when he emphasizes the unfair treatment and alienation of the African Americans. King also uses highly connotative language so that he could evoke a, emotional response to the audience such as, “chains of discrimination” and “oppression” to reinforce the need

Martin Luther King Jr. is a well-known icon of the civil rights movement. Throughout his time leading the movement, he wrote two of some of his best works, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream,” which was a speech he presented on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. The letter on the other hand addressed his wrongful jailing in Birmingham, Alabama and also the treatment of African Americans. His speech is one of the most important speeches in America and he is mainly identified by it alone. These two works contain Logos and Pathos that add life and understanding to his writing, and overall changes the way readers and listeners alike think about the civil rights movement as a whole.

I have a dream; the speech was carefully tailored to connect with the audience. Martin Luther King had hoped that it would be as well received from the crowd as the Gettysburg address was. He proudly used the steps of the Lincoln’s memorial to deliver his speech, referencing many of Lincoln’s quotes for freedom and equality. The subject of the speech was for jobs and freedom, but mainly for the freedom and equality of black people as it was promised by the signed Emancipation Proclamation. In this paper, we are going to examine the positive and negative impact on the nation and the world by Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, to what extend did his dream become reality.

The I Have a Dream Speech is the most iconic speech that came from this era. King talked about how this condition they are in is shameful, something people should be embarrassed of. He referenced to the Emancipation Proclamation and the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”. He also mentioned that it is not only all in the hands of black people, but white as well. There was a sense of unity in this speech (I Have a Dream).

The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written in August 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr., a Civil Rights leader. During this time he was held in Birmingham Jail for his involvement in peaceful protests against segregation. Due to the protest, eight religious leaders issued a public statement listing their concerns and cautions towards it. The letter was Dr. King’s response to it. In the letter, he states why segregation and racial injustice must end and that direct action must be taken. Throughout the letter, he convinces the reader to side with him and his cause through the use of figurative language and ethos and pathos.

In both works, Dr. King Jr. adopted techniques of series rhetoric, repetitions, effective use of metaphors and similes in protesting against social injustice and assuring his audience of a hope for a better tomorrow. In the letter to the clergy Dr. King Jr. invoked their thinking of what a just and unjust law was. He explained that the just law is a moral act of God’s will and the unjust law is such act instituted by men. When in conflict, he admonished society to accept the laws of God over those of men and cited instances where society had an obligation to reject unjust laws of segregation. Dr. King Jr. draws inspiration from men of historical significance to ascertain his claim and quotes

Martin Luther King makes significant use of emotional appeals to connect and enlist a sense of trust between him and the citizens of the community as

On August 28th, 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr stood on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. He spoke passionately for 17 minutes on his views about human equality for African Americans at one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in history. King played a major role in ending the segregation for African Americans. His rhetorical language left an impact on America. Through his use of appeals like ethos, logos, pathos, and other rhetorical techniques. He influenced Americans to believe in the notion that all men are created equal.

“[The] Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation,”.stated Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech “I Have A Dream,”.which he gave on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, during a march on Washington (1).King’s purpose in his speech was to expound on the need for change in civil rights, especially for black Americans. By utilizing repetition, an extended metaphor and light and dark imagery,King connects logically and emotionally to his audience to evoke a sense of power to overcome racism.

The primary purpose of Dr. King’s eloquent and dramatically delivered speech is that of persuasion. King’s claim is the Negro people are still not free one hundred years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. This warrant is supported by King’s effective emotional appeal to his African American audience. He supports this with the following: "but one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.” This is emotional because after one hundred years of oppression, the African American community has still not achieved their cultural and economic potential according to King. He is endeavoring to persuade his audience, fellow minorities and

During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s a black man by the name Martin Luther King Jr. help with the gradual advancement of Colored People to remove them from the second class of society, and to be treated as equals among their white peers. On August 28th 1963, a speech titled “I Have a Dream” written by Martin Luther King Jr was preached at the Lincoln Memorial, in commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln had passed a hundred years earlier freeing the black slaves. During this speech King effectively got his point across to thousands of Americans, and lit a spark of hope to all African Americans, all with his moving words and rhetorical devices used in his speech.

Although Dr. King was also a gifted speaker, the way in which one is familiarized with the writings has little to do with their effect on the reader. King uses simpler language in “I Have A Dream” than he does in “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, so, even if he had given both texts as speeches, “I Have A Dream” would still have had a greater impact because more people would have understood it. In addition to that, the purpose of “I Have A Dream” was to inspire the general public to make a change in society, unlike “Letter From Birmingham Jail” which was aimed at a much smaller audience. “Letter From Birmingham Jail” uses mostly logos language, which is harder to turn into a powerful speech than

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than forty years ago, Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. This speech demanded racial justice towards the mistreated black community of America. The theme of the speech was that all humans were created equal and that this should be the case for the future of America. King's words proved to touch the hearts of millions of people and gave the nation a vocabulary to express what was happening to the black Americans. This did not happen by chance. Martin Luther King's speech was carefully constructed so it would have the most appropriate diction to propose his facts and ideas. His speech involved multiple different literary techniques which were very