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English essay figurative language
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More handpicked essays just for you.
English essay figurative language
Figurative language in stories
Figurative language and theme english 12
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In this letter by Martin Luther King Jr., he wants to explain to the eight clergymen why he has been jailed. He wants to show them that what he was doing was necessary. The clergymen were confused and upset about his image and wrote a statement explaining their own views. After reading this statement, King wanted to have these men completely educated on the matter. King does this by persuading his audience, using various rhetorical devices.
In paragraphs 33 to 44 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s response to “A Call for Unity,” a declaration by eight clergymen, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), he expresses that despite his love for the church, he is disappointed with its lack of action regarding the Civil Rights Movement. Through powerful, emotionally-loaded diction, syntax, and figurative language, King adopts a disheartened tone later shifts into a determined tone in order to express and reflect on his disappointment with the church’s inaction and his goals for the future. King begins this section by bluntly stating that he is “greatly disappointed” (33) with the church, though he “will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen” (33). By appealing to ethos and informing the audience of his history with the church, he indicates that he is not criticizing the church for his own sake, but for the good of the church.
In 1963, Civil Rights leader Matin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a nonviolent protest on the grounds of parading without a permit (para 19). As a result five clergymen from the city of the protest, Birmingham, Alabama, condemned King’s demonstration as untimely, arousing unrest in the community, and precipitating violence (para mm). After receiving a copy of the clergymen’s statements, King spent his time in Birmingham Jail writing what is now referred to as “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to address the concerns and misconceptions the clergymen relayed. King effectively breaks down the clergymen’s concerns through appeals of logic such as detailing the process of the protests, and appeals to emotion such as the daily life experiences of african americans and descriptive language.
As Martin Luther King Jr. served his prison sentence for participating in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, he wrote an influential open letter titled "Letter from Birmingham Jail". In his letter, King urges the oppressed blacks to rise up to the challenge of overcoming racism and racial segregation. As an experienced orator and rhetorician, King uses many different methods in his writing to evoke a powerful affective response in the reader by creating a sense of urgency and responsibility. He uses techniques such as syntax, diction, parallelism, and Aristotle's three appeals as a call to arms; he argues that direct actions are necessary to break unjust laws, rather than waiting for justice to be served through the prejudiced
Martin Luther King Jr. has written many inspirational pieces during his lifetime while fighting for African American civil rights. Two of his most inspirational writings are his I Have A Dream speech and the Letter From Birmingham Jail. The only question that remains is “which one takes the cake,” meaning, which one conveys the deepest, most meaningful message about the fight for equal rights? It is clear, however, that the Letter From Birmingham Jail shows itself to be the true winner because of its powerful message and great detail involving the issues of segregation and the unequal rights that African Americans faced everyday, which stirred and appealed to the emotions of his audience.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in 1954. He had a great impact on race relations in the U.S. and he made a great impact on many lives. He died in 1968. Dr. King wrote 2 famous works, “Dream” and “Birmingham” and each had a different audience and purpose. Both works utilizes the persuasive techniques of pathos in “Dream” and logos in “Birmingham.”
The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written by Martin Luther King Jr. He wrote this as a reply to “A Letter from the Clergy” which was written by eight clergymen. This essay’s style is inspirational. “Let us all hope that dark clouds of racial prejudice…over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty” (King 500-501).
“Unjust laws exist: Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them” (Thoreau 945, par.16). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had written about resisting an unjust government in his piece, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. In his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau also discusses the right and responsibility to resist an unjust government. Since King and Thoreau both use current events in their time as examples of injustice, use historical and biblical references, how they can’t wait any longer to make a change, both provide strong arguments on how important it is to stand up against the injustice put upon American people by the government; however, King and Thoreau were inspired to write by different causes
In September 1963 four little girls from Birmingham, Alabama, were killed by a bomb that was planted by white supremacists at the 16th St. Baptist Church. Over 20 African Americans were injured. The children were as young as 7 or 8 years old. Even after such tragedy, children continued their efforts to end segregation by marching with Martin Luther King Jr.
Hearts of the oppressed will always cry out in desperation; waiting for anyone to swoop in and liberate them from their cruel reality. Few are capable of mustering up the gumption to throw their neck on the line in defense of the defenseless. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one such man. Trading in his comfortable life for one of danger and ridicule, King was catapulted to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement following the profound leadership he demonstrated during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. As a well-educated, African American pastor, he provided a unique perspective on the racial issues at hand.
(1). He uses the rhetorical device of figurative language to give the reader a strong image of his feeling
In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. protested the racial segregation in Birmingham and got arrested. While he was in jail he read a newspaper and 8 white clergymen stated their opinion of him. That inspired his Letter From Birmingham Jail. After he got out he continued to protest and he wrote his I Have a Dream Speech. He spoke in front of about 10,000 people in Washington DC.
Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential African-American activists in American History and was a key participant in the Civil Rights movement, the goal of which was to provide full civil rights to all rights in America. MLK has written many, many speeches and letters in favor of the Civil Rights movement in America, the most famous of them being his legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech and the monumental “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To attempt to gain support for his cause, MLK employs the use of emotional appeals, also known as pathos, and logical appeals, also known as logos, which aid to stir emotion and reasoning in the listener. It is more than obvious that MLK tends to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners with his emotionally charged language essential to his success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses more powerful and plentiful examples of pathos in his literature, examples of which being his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, than logos due to the more powerful emotional connection they carry which can convince his listeners to sympathize with his civil rights movement.
He does so specifically with examples that resonate with the audience. For instance, as he attempts to persuade listeners to consider revolting against the government, he uses a real-life example: All men recognize... the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution Of '75... when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole
In King’s letter, he states, “We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” Funny thing is he had lots of time to think about and write this letter. He wanted this letter to encourage and bring up a people that will start a revolution. He needed something, that special something, that would ignite the fire that had somehow died out. His Letter from Birmingham Jail was the match.