Examples Of Figurative Language In Letters To Birmingham

seems to address the entire country and whoever reads the letter, instead of his main audience who are the eight white clergymen. This letter was written to certainly impact anyone who read it and to persuade people and the clergymen to take effect. Throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr. remains calm, although he is in jail for leading a nonviolent protest for equality and ending segregation. His tone is urgent but remains gentle. King remains stern and speaks about his cause and what he believes in. King's main themes of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is justice and action. Martin Luther King does a great job convincing his audience that justice was lacking, and action needs to occur. When reading the letter, the reader is convinced King presents a very effective and persuasive argument. King tries to convince his readers that the time to act is now. Dr. King uses a lot of ethos in his letter by using his audiences’ morals and ethics and evidence that supports his argument to convince the clergymen and people reading that segregation is wrong and the matter needs to be addressed. Dr. King also uses pathos, emotion, to try to appeal to his audience to make his letter more effective. Some examples of pathos throughout the letter where Dr. King tells about elderly African Americans being mistreated, imprisoned people being mistreated, King also uses his young child's bitterness toward

Dr. King’s claim is obvious and present, clearly presenting the main point of the argument as being in Birmingham because of the injustice toward the Negro community. Quoted directly from the letter, Dr. King states, “there can be no gain-saying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this [Birmingham, Alabama] community” (277). This quote demonstrates the statement of claim found directly from the text itself. Continuing on, the claim is supported by multiple subclaims like unjust treatment in the courts, unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham, and unfulfilled negotiation plans with merchants who promised to remove multiple stores’ humiliating racial signs. Next, support throughout the letter is apparent in order to uphold

“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King, Jr., is a letter in which King is writing to his “fellow clergymen” in a response to their recent criticism of the actions he was leading in Birmingham at the time. The letter was written in April of 1963, a time when segregation was essentially at a peak in the south. Birmingham, in particular, is described by King as “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States” (King 7). King goes on to inform the clergymen of the reality of the situation where he is and how waiting isn’t an option anymore. In the letter, King uses a variety of rhetorical

In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King demonstrates the need for extreme action by depicting Birmingham’s dire future if the Clergymen continue to simply wait for the city to change. He claims that without extreme action one of two possible scenarios will play out, either nothing will ever change in Birmingham and people will continue to suffer under injustice, or worse, the African American community in Birmingham will be forced to resort to violence in order to accomplish their goal of equality. In the quote “millions of Negroes will… seek solace and security in a black nationalist ideology - a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare,” Dr. King demonstrates the consequences of the clergymen condemning his protest by explaining that his protests are the only way for many of the African American people to work out their frustrations, and without them, the majority of the black populace in Birmingham has no way to release its

After being criticized about his presence in Birmingham by white clergy in a letter published in the Birmingham newspaper, Martin Luther King set out to not only establish why he was in Birmingham, but also to establish moral, legal, and ethical cause to his platform and the resultant peaceful protests he had been promoting, all of which lead to his arrest and the reason he was in jail. Martin Luther King established early on in the letter his credibility as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and also that he was in Birmingham due to an invitation as a result of his organizational ties. Mr. King also went on to elaborate about his personal reason for being there due to a great injustice to the black people that prevailed in Birmingham. Mr. King used the artistic proofs of ethos, logos and pathos to establish his credibility and persuade or convince his audience in the relevance of his platform.

    The intent of Dr. King was to address his reasoning for being in Birmingham and to expound upon what the clergyman called unwise and untimely. In the initiation of the letter he explains his position in society. He was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and a civil rights activist who fought for equality of all regardless of ethnicity. His main focus was to induce equality into Birmingham instead of segregation. His position was the voice of the black community and he was known by many, including the president of the United States. He was also a pastor who had political and biblical knowledge and understanding like his “fellow clergyman.” In the

In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. informs the readers of the reasons how and why he is giving a nonviolent protest to racism. King begins the letter stating how he was invited to Birmingham and how he is trying to fight against the “injustice.” In his letter King continues on to explain that the black men have waited to long for justice and they are still fighting it in the present today through the unjust laws. The white churches were brought up negatively through the letter numerous times especially since the letter was specifically written to the clergy members. Dr. King ends his letter in personal hope that the clergy men will see what is wrong in the overall picture of injustice in Birmingham and

One powerful example of King’s pull on the reader’s consciousness in his letter is on page three when he refutes the argument of the Clergymen saying that Colored people should just “wait”.  While many words truly stand out, King’s true effect was mastered by the appeal to the parents in the group, “When you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why white people treat colored people so mean” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail” 3)Then again, “humiliation day in and day out by nagging signs” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail 3) and even further, when “you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail 3).  Another element that helps support King’s point in his letter is the fervent repetition of his blatant disappointment in more than simply the clergymen, but their Christian faith and the churches in service within Alabama during this time. King repeats how disappointed he was in the “common whites” also and their bystander reactions to racial issues. The fact that this man, a minister, “beneath” the said extremist white clergymen, and inhabiting a jail cell during that time, who was disappointed in people showed a true depth which hit the audience profoundly. (King)

     Martin Luther King Jr. writes the Clergymen that have written him a letter disputing his actions in Birmingham. King is disturbed and offended by the Clergymen disagreeing with his purpose in Birmingham. King say he normally does not respond to criticism because it would waste to much precious time, but since these were men of good will he wanted to give his answers to their statements. In King's letter he appeals to many emotions as pathos, ethos, and logos to appeal to his audience.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” after an unjust proposal made by eight white clergymen. Their claims were to be that no Negro “outsider” should be allowed to establish or lead any protest and should leave them to their local neighborhoods. King replied directly to the clergymen, but used religious ties to also have his voice heard in the public. In his counter argument, King strategically used logical evidence, emotional aspects and good motives to present his perspective to the clergymen.

Throughout his letter, King talks about how unfair the white Americans were towards the black nation, he talks about the disrespect, unfair and unjust treatment the black community had received from the white Americans. In the letter King’s response is very moving and effective to the readers, he has achieved this by effective use of language, stylistic devices such as the use of imagery, similes and metaphors, and by using

In arguing, writers use different techniques to effectively convey their message to their intended audience. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was a response to "A Call for Unity" by eight white clergymen in which King’s presence in Birmingham and his methods of public demonstration were questioned. King’s letter was not only a response to his presence in Birmingham, but he also used the opportunity to address the unjust proposals by the clergymen that Negroes wait for the legal system to abolish segregation and unjust laws. King uses rhetorical modes of persuasion such as ethos, pathos and logos to meticulously address and discredit the claims made by the

In paragraphs 12-14 of “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Dr. King begins addressing the clergymen’s belief that the peaceful demonstrations conducted by him and his associates were untimely. King starts answering questions frequently heard by opposing or moderate forces, as well as essentially denouncing the resistance to desegregation. King then introduced the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed; concluding that the oppressor is not inclined to act on things that do not directly affect them. Therefore, providing a platform of his argument as to why blacks could no longer wait to be given their basic human rights. Action needed to take place because fair treatment was no longer a hope to be given, it had to be taken.

Finally, racism was a major theme, and it was even the cause of the letter’s writing. For example, Dr. King said that though “it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but . . . it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative” (78), describing how it was racism that forced his actions which led him to be jailed. Dr. King further described the immense racism present at the time by noting that “There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation” (78).

Birmingham was known as one of the most racist cities in the South, but also a place where change needed to take place. King, having been arrested several times before for peaceful protest was in jail in Birmingham for violating law with public demonstrations. He discovered that his methods of bringing awareness to the matter of civil rights was under harsh scrutiny by white members of the church. During his short amount of time in jail, he responded to the criticism by writing one of the most important documents that came out of the Civil Rights movement known as “Letters from a Birmingham Jail”. In this document, King brilliantly displays his writing ability and how he strikes the heart of the nation pointing out his Christian beliefs and the words of the Bible in the fight for equality.