Birmingham Jail Speech Analysis

In the late 1960's Martin Luther King Jr gave a speech to help open the eyes of America to their harsh reality. He gave this speech, not as a way to bash on Americans, but as a way to inform them on ways to enact justice and equality among all. The speech had some controversial parts that in the end had a great impact. In King's speech he uses emotions, eye-opening, harsh diction and questioning imagery to inform those willing to listen, about the issues his nation faces.
King uses eye-opening and harsh diction to allow the audience to feel a connection with the oppressed in America. He uses the word “ betrayal” because the majority of people have felt betrayal or something similar to it. In the context of his speech it says that those who

King speaks about how, as a nation, “we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village” but fail to realize that this may not seem uncommon. The audience can picture a poor village burning down, but in this context they now see the poor of America crumbling underneath their struggles. It makes the audience feel the desperation of the poor in hopes of getting some type of sympathy or understanding. Once the audience has some understanding of why these issues seem so profound, he leaves them with the image of how “ no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers”. It provides the image of unity and peace between not some, but all. The audience now sees the oppressed as “brothers” which adds a close bond rather than calling them “people” which in very generic and unfamiliar. It makes the argument “hit close to home” by doing this.
Kings wanted to spread the word about what issues America has had to face. He didn't want to sugar coat the issue, so he used eye-opening, harsh diction and questioning imagery. The emotions that he made the audience feel will now reflect how they react to the situation. It provided progress to the issues that seemed