ipl-logo

How Is Allusion Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail

729 Words3 Pages

In Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, he points out and explains all the injustice being done to the black community. King addresses the letter to the 6 white clergymen who wrote a newsletter not understanding all the hardships and discrimination. He has to be aware that these people are close-minded, so making them see this big issue from a different perspective is going to be difficult. Furthermore, Martin Luther King Jr. uses allusion and anaphora to demonstrate the injustice and help people empathize with him and his cause. Martin Luther King Jr. utilizes allusion throughout his letter to help the clergymen understand by comparing his movement to religion. King is aware that these men are well adapted to the teachings …show more content…

also utilizes anaphora to emphasize the importance of the issue and acknowledge it. Many people have told King and his supporters that it is not the right time and they need to wait. In response, he explains just how badly colored people are treated and why they can’t “wait”. He knows these white clergymen can never fully understand the hardship created by segregation and discrimination. To illustrate it for them he lists off the injustices, from the emotional pain of explaining racism to his kids, to examples of lynching and extreme police brutality. Each example starts with “when you” because he knows that they will never have to deal with the same problems. Until they do have to deal with these problems they can not know the true urgency of this problem so they have no right telling him to “wait”. Later in the letter, King responds to the clergymen saying his approach as being too extreme. He states, “I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist of love?… Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?... Was not Martin Luther an extremist?... Was not John Bunyan an extremist?”(7). King is comparing what he is doing to these known people whom others look up to. He again compares himself to religious figures because it is something they know well. He then goes on to just talk about historical figures which shows that having a strong opinion about something does not mean it is bad. He is an extremist when it comes to injustice and wholeheartedly believes in the cause and he is not ashamed of

Show More
Related
752 Words | 4 Pages

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a minister, spokesperson, activist, and civil rights leader, wrote “Letter From Birmingham Jail” specifically to the eight clergymen who addressed his unlawful acts, but the message is also intended for Christians and the people of the whole nation. Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail uses parallelism to emphasize the extent that discriminatory actions happened in Birmingham and in the U.S, allusion to justify his actions, and antithesis to contrast two ideas and eventually persuade the clergymen and all others that nonviolent protest will help end racial segregation. He also uses the rhetoric to defend his actions. Dr. King uses a list of rhetorical devices in his letter. One device that stood

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

He reveals his hope that the church will make changes to its current attitude, while at the same time expressing his disappointment. Furthermore, King prefaces this section with a statement that he is a man “who loves the church,” (34) and “was nurtured in its bosom” (34) in order to establish his credibility and appeal to ethos. He suggests that he knows the church

Read More
185 Words | 1 Pages

The letter of Birmingham jail written by Martin Luther King Jr remains one of the best-known texts of the civil rights era. Its success is due to the the efficient use of rhetorical devices that he used flawlessly as well as the way he positioned his claims, One of many of these devices was an allusion, where King presents associations with his text and religion where King presents associations with his text and religious figures and historical events that emphasize the theme he is presenting. An example of an allusion can be seen in paragraph 3 when King quotes “the prophets of the eighth century B.C.” and “the Apostle Paul”. , Figures are a very strong factor in this text. Martin Luther King Jr also known as King provided a comparison between

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

In paragraph eleven, King uses an anaphora to list examples of oppression and convey a sense of urgency through the letter. The repetition of “when you” causes the reader to feel at fault, especially because King is describing some horrifying instances; this forces the audience to put themselves in the shoes of a black person living in America. The sympathy we feel is essentially King’s very effective use of pathos. By repeating “when you” ten times within one periodic sentence, (which is not completely grammatically correct) the final clause is enhanced. The suspense created through this anaphora accentuates his general statement at the end of the paragraph more effectively, and explains his main point being as well as the reason he is impatient for

Read More
1166 Words | 5 Pages

One rhetorical tool King uses in his letter is pronouns to address the audience. This rhetorical tool addresses a particular audience but it is not necessarily to persuade them at this point. King drops these rhetorical tools throughout the one of them "I am afraid that it is much too long to take, your precious time" (paragraph 5). King talks to the clergyman through this rhetorical tool and addresses them in different ways. King rates with a purpose his purpose is to persuade people and change their opinion on civil rights.

Read More
1609 Words | 7 Pages

According to the book, They Say, I say, “The more complex and subtle your argument is, and the more it departs from the conventional ways people think, the more your readers will need to be able to place it on their mental map in order to process the complex details you present” (Graff et. al, 58). This relates the King’s letter because of his use of complex language and religion. The allusions to the bible that he uses forces his audience to “process the complex details” that he presents. An example of one of these allusions is when King says, “just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town” (King 412).

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

By comparing this situation to that of Paul in the bible, Dr. King implies that he

Read More
1235 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout King’s letter, he incorporated different rhetorical appeals, such as pathos, to make the audience understand the harsh treatment African Americans were subjected to each day. In his letter King emphasized, “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society... (King 3).” This piece of evidence describes the brutality that was

Read More
939 Words | 4 Pages

Equally important, King brings upon feelings of sympathy and compassion to convince the clergymen what they're going through is what no one should ever have to go through. To be specific, King states “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” and “when you … explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised… and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children”. These examples make the clergymen imagine the struggles and pain they are put through just because they don't have the same color of skin as others. His goal

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

One such example is when he labels Jesus as an “extremist for love” in response to him being labeled as an extremist by the clergymen. In his letter, King states “ Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” ” (King 31). By comparing Jesus' teaching of love and kindness to his own actions during the civil rights movement, King effectively frames his action in a positive light and insinuates that it is necessary to display civil disobedience.

Read More
1498 Words | 6 Pages

After the eight clergymen released a public statement directed towards King’s “extreme” leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, King decided to respond in his letter. He used a variety of allusions, targeting scholars, history, and, directed closest to the audience, the bible: “Was not Jesus an extremist…” (page 269). Because the eight clergymen consider themselves men of God, King alludes to Jesus’s extremes. If the clergymen rejoice and respect Jesus’s duties as an extremist, planning to insult King’s efforts backfired: King used the slander to his advantage, building ethos of himself as a man of God. Constructing more credibility, King writes, “...just as the Apostle Paul left his village...and carried out the gospel of Jesus Christ… so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my hometown.”

Read More
1067 Words | 5 Pages

This makes it very easy for King to cut into their cheap words and dissect their poorly crafted arguments through a calm tone and indifferent, thoughtful thinking

Read More
1546 Words | 7 Pages

King uses biblical allusions to appeal to the eight white clergymen and their religious affiliation when he states his duty to carry the “gospel of freedom beyond his home town... Like Paul.” His final point of this section is the clergymen’s failure to recognize the underlying causes of the demonstrations they so harshly condemn, a failure causing further ignorance and confusion on racial

Read More
829 Words | 4 Pages

He writes this letter to defend his organization and peaceful protesting, yet also identifies the racial injustices he, and many other citizens received. King’s writing was very effective in accomplishing his goal to get his point across that segregation is a very serious thing. King hopes that his powerful and emotional message in his letter will impact how the clergymen, the whites, and many others approach and take action towards segregation. He hopes that they will see how terrible inequality truly is and make the American Society have less hate and more

Read More
640 Words | 3 Pages

Case Studies in Law and Society Abortion and Biomedical Interventions The field of Law in most cases provides a clear solution to legal dilemmas however, these problems can become quite complicated and difficult since very often legal issues are connected to moral issues. This can raise quite a few questions because sometimes if something is a legally accepted solution it doesn’t mean it is fully accepted morally. My essay will discuss two big moral topics, human reproduction and rehabilitation intervention for criminal offenders.

Read More

More about How Is Allusion Used In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Related Topics

Open Document