What Are The Rhetorical Devices Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail

One of the rhetorical strategies is comparison, and comparison comes in the letter of “"Letter from a Birmingham Jail” when Dr.King compared between the old church and the modern church, and he showed his disappointment when he said “In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society… So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is an exceptional example of Aristotelian rhetoric because it encompasses all three types of appeals. This is evidenced first by King’s use of ethos as he writes to the eight men of religion. In providing his reasoning for being in Birmingham, King establishes himself as a man of faith. In doing this, he shows that he is trying to lay a foundation of credibility with the clergymen to whom he is addressing in the letter. It could also be said that King is attempting to establish credibility with general readers using his knowledge of the law and his extensive vocabulary.

Was not Paul….” (King 7), the use of anaphora to talk about the extremists throughout history was used to dispute that King was not a “bad” extremist. Instead, he was an extremist for love just like Jesus, Amos, and Paul were extremists for love. Even though King was an extremist, he used the logical appeal to show that he is a extremist of love and the use of anaphora was effective in relating himself to those extremists for love. Towards the end of King’s letter he stated “The South will recognize its real heros” (King 11) by first drawing an emotional and logical appeal and ends with “by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of the Independence” (King 11) to indicate there will be social equality again.

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.

Persuasive works use many rhetorical devices to help the writer or speaker grab the audience's attention, or even manipulate certain emotions. Martin Luther King, Jr. used rhetorical devices in his works to create responses in his audience. He chose which devices to use based on his audience and the occasion. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was meant to carry emotional appeal, while his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” focused on logical appeal.

King then sums up this passage by turning his voice back to the clergymen he's addressing and says, "Then you will understand why we find it difficult to

“A Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was written during the peak of the civil rights movement. In the letter, Dr. King uses many rhetorical devices to discuss the racial discrimination that was sweeping the nation. Although Dr. King is presently seen as an American hero, during the Civil Rights Movement he was simply seen as another negro trying to break the social norm. In "Letter From Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King uses many rhetorical devices to counter the arguments made by eight white clergymen.

Letter from Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis In the Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr demonstrates his fury with the delay of the civil rights promised in U.S. Constitution. In a specific passage in the letter, Dr. King addresses that his actions are timely, and that change must be put in order. Dr. King makes the reader feel mournful, uses strategic repetition, and syntax through the use of a periodic sentence in the Letter from Birmingham Jail to convey that integration cannot be postponed any longer. Dr. King uses strategic repetition to illustrate the long lived feeling of “waiting” for a change.

King to gain the reader's attention with emotion, and his moving past as a clergyman allows him to challenge the notion that sometimes civil disobedience is an appropriate response to injustice, as it demonstrates that the people who want to change our courteous and refined while their opposers are not. In addition, Dr. King uses tone to demonstrate how he is fed up with the current position of the white moderate. One example of Dr. King establishing a frustrated tone is when he demonstrates the use of anaphora. In the last paragraph of the second page of the letter, Dr. King repetitively uses the route to his sentence “When you”. This use of anaphora demonstrates a frustrated tone, as every sentence which uses it has a negative meaning behind it.

Racism has been prevalent in the lives of many for years, which has utterly prevented many to feel fully integrated in society. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. addresses these concerns. While reading these passages I was fascinated by Dr. King’s strategies within his wording and how he used rhetorical devices to get this point across. Yet. reading this letter made me realize that he had a point, racism had intensified over the years and change had to occur eventually. Injustice reigned over Birmingham which prompted people to seek justice, yet their voices and cries were ignored. People opposed the non violent demonstrations that were taking place, yet refused to take the time to listen to the concerns and opinions

One of the most famous documents in American history is the 1963 letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King was considered the most prominent and persuasive man of The Civil Rights Movement. He was an ordained minister and had his doctorate degree in theology by the time he was twenty-five years old. In Montgomery, Alabama, King served as a pastor. He also served as a president or leader of several notable associations.

At a time where African Americans felt oppressed by whites, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up for what he felt was right and spoke the truth about controversial issues such as inequality and injustice. During the 1960s when he wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, segregation was a major controversy. There was a divide between African Americans and white Americans with racism and prejudice being very prevalent throughout this era. Public places, like restaurants and bathrooms, were being split up into sections based on race. As a nonviolent protester, King frequented in silent marches through southern cities, especially Birmingham, Alabama. The goal was to act in a nonviolent way towards whites and stay persistent. From this,

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)

A multitude of his words possessed an ethical essence and he turned these words into one of his greatest weapons to persuade the clergymen. “Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber” (King 4). This may have been one of the more direct quotes that stuck in the minds of many, perhaps even the clergymen. King demonstrated how there was a problem in society; the blacks were being wrongly accused and punished for crimes that were made against them. To any human, this would have made sense. Connecting on a higher lever, in a rhetorical analysis, “Rhetorical Distance in ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’”, the author, Michael Osborn, conveyed a quote by King saying, “It will triumph because of its vital identification both with America and with the will of god” (29). This quote established an ethical conclusion made by King; he stated that his efforts would succeed because they agreed with the identification of America and the will of God. King made the assertion here that his cause aligned with what would be best for his country, and he also ethically tied his cause to God. “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty” (King 3). Here, King stated that everyone had a moral obligation to rebel against an unjust law, but everyone also needed to rebel peacefully and take on the punishment to come. By connecting these ideas together, King had a greater chance of pulling his audience in, especially since his audience were men and women of Christianity. Not only did King connect to his audience on a moral level, but he also connected with them on an emotional

Dr. King was arrested in 1963 in the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans. “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written a few days after King’s arrest, defended Dr. King’s argument about the civil rights movement. He uses the pathos, ethos, and logos modes of persuasion and uses several rhetorical strategies such as metaphors, citing authority, parallelism, Rogerian strategy, and anaphora to defend his argument against racism and segregation.