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Comparison Of Letter From Birmingham Jail And The Perils Of Indifference

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Imagine living in a society in which justice isn’t served. Being arrested for protesting, just on helping other citizens in America get the rights that they deserve. In Martin Luther King’s speech “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel, Dr. King is the most effective in motivating individuals of America to support him in his efforts against injustice or indifference. One of the many rhetorical devices Dr.King uses was parallelism, in which he organized and pointed out his ideas to the audience. In the letter, Dr. King stated “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This is an example of parallelism because this rhetoric device allowed his speech to flow and for the audience to understand easier. Dr. King repeats the same phrases or ideas to prove a point that if there is inequality in one area, then it is a threat that justice won’t be accomplished. We as citizens are all connected in some way and if something happens to one person, it affects all citizens as a whole in …show more content…

In King’s words, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” He makes a clear difference between just law and an unjust law. King believes in a law that is higher than a law of man. Logos in this quote evokes that Black Americans are being denied the vote. The audience can understand the point King made about democracy. The rhetorical device of logos helps the audience believe his accurate sources and join him in his

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In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King professes his disappointment with the white moderates for calling him an extremist for his schemes. At first, in paragraph 27, King does not deny the fact-by using anaphora- that there are some Negros who “advocate violence”, but he also asserts that there are even more for “nonviolent protest”(King 28). In making this comment, King urges for people to look at his acts of nonviolent protesting . Indeed the insignificant amount of violence will be more looked upon than the nonviolence; however, there are numerous acts nonvilence that should surpass this. Additionally, in paragraph 31, King states how at first he despised the label but then “gained [...] satisfaction” from it.

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James Nuci Mr. Ottman English 11 AP 23 August 2017 Essay 21: Innovative author and presence on the Internet, Steven Johnson, in his excerpt from everything that is good for you; how today's popular culture is actually making us smarter (2005), publicizes that the general population would have dramatically different viewpoints if presented with different chronological circumstances. He supports his claim by first offering statistics that summarize pleasure readers' positive impact on society, then having readers visualize the world with certain circumstances, then breaking down two opposing sides of an argument, and then finally clarifying his own point of view on the topic. Johnson's purpose is to shine light on the controversial standpoint of many people on a certain topic, in order to allow readers to understand both sides of the argument along with their pros and cons. He creates a professional tone for people associated with pleasure reading or playing video games.

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King defines an unjust law as a “code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself.” The main difference between a just

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In the essay “Letters from Birmingham Jail” written by Martin Luther King, there were several values that he expounded on. Martin Luther King were willing to give his life for what he believe in. Two values were justice and freedom of rights. Martin Luther King provides a moral reason why he went to Birmingham. He went to battle and fight “injustice.”

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(Paragraph 4). This drew the clergymen’s attention to King’s beliefs and possibly made them realize the flaws in the system. King also states, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law…” (Paragraph 5).

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King describes an unjust law as “no law at all,” because of the unequal statements and principles of the law that target a specific group. As King states in his letter, “One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey the laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws'' (King, Letter from

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Graded Assignment Unit Test, Part 2: Social Commentary Answer each question, using complete sentences. Total score: ____ of 60 points (Score for Question 1: ___ of 20 points) 1. What is the difference between the type of equality presented in “Harrison Bergeron” and that presented in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”? Answer this question in at least a paragraph and make sure to cite examples from the text.

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

One April 16th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., pastor and civil rights activist, in his speech entitled “Letter form Birmingham City Jail”, addresses social justice for all people. He supports his claims by first stating there is heritage and Americans will fight for what they deserve, then explaining we are doing the wrong thing to get the correct outcome, which is protesting for equality, and finally everyday people disobey the law to get the outcome they want. Through use of tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools he effectively persuades the United States citizens to bring social justice to everyone across the United States of America King’s optimistic and encouraging tone promotes and livens the United States citizens. King’s speech

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In paragraph 9 King states “there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws (6),” and then continues with King stating “Now, what is the difference between the two? (7)” What is the difference between an unjust law and a just law? King goes on to explain that a just law is one that “squares with the moral

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Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at it’s peak in the South. When King was making his mark in American history, the United States was experiencing great social unrest due to the injustice towards their colored citizens, which would lead to social rights rallies and unnecessary violence. In response to King’s peaceful protesting, the white community viewed “[his] nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist,” and subsequently imprisoned the pastor (para 27). King specifically wrote to the white clergymen who had earlier addressed a letter to him as to why he was apprehended, in which they argued that his actions were untimely and unconstitutional. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive.

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Now that king established the theory of Just and Unjust laws he then explains the difference between a just and unjust law, King says just laws “square with moral law” meaning the law agrees with the law of god. An unjust law is the opposite; the

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872 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr., the use of Parallelism and Antithesis as rhetorical devices were used in his speech to gather the audience listening. Dr. King used parallelism to emphasize the idea of letting freedom ring by repeating the word freedom during his speech on the idea that one day, they will all be doing everything together, that there will be no more segregation. As well, Dr. King used the rhetorical device of Antithesis to illustrate the clear concept being made between the two ideas of injustice and oppression with freedom and justice. To be brief, by the use of rhetorical devices to ensure that every man, regardless of race, is equal, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. emphasized solidarity to bring together the American people in anticipation of ending racial inequality through his mesmerizing

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829 Words | 4 Pages

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”. King addresses the fact that even though at the time blacks are the ones being segregated upon, it still affects the white community, not just blacks. This quote is relevant to the entirety of the paper because the whole letter is focused on injustices and how they have affected

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1786 Words | 8 Pages

Civil Disobedience Martin Luther King once stated in "The Letter from Birmingham Jail", "Any individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment to arouse the conscience of the community over it injustice is in reality, expressing the highest respect for the law" (King 411). King meant that, if anyone feels a law is unjust and needed to expose its injustice, should willingly accept any penalty that comes in their way to help arouse people 's conscience in changing that law. In “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King explains the four powerful steps of the nonviolent campaign he used to protest against racial injustice for African-Americans

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609 Words | 3 Pages

King distinguishes between just and unjust laws by explaining the difference between them; he explains the moral affect each one has, the unfair way the majority used unjust laws, and the reason breaking unjust laws is okay. Now then, King uses morality to help explain the difference between just and unjust laws. King says “A just law is a man-made law that squares with the moral law or the law of God.” (356) He goes on to say “Unjust…….

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