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Letter From Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis

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On April 16, 1963, from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter in response to his activities being labeled "unwise and untimely". He wrote this letter to justify his actions, explain why they were needed, and explained the injustice occurring in Birmingham, Alabama to the clergymen who called his actions "unwise and untimely". He explains to the clergymen that he is there protesting the Jim Crow laws and the racial violence in Alabama. King uses several various rhetorical devices and appeals to argue the point that his actions have not been "unwise and untimely" but have, in fact, been absolutely necessary. At the beginning of his letter, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. claims that he is not an outsider and establishes his credibility through his organizational ties, his biblical duty, and the interrelatedness of America. King contends with being called an outsider by citing his …show more content…

King uses parallel structure and an emotional appeal to refute the clergymen's claim that his actions were "unwise and untimely". Throughout the paragraph, Dr. King uses parallel structure when he repeats words like "We" and "Now is the time" to create a sense of Homeric importance when saying, "We will have to repent in this generation... We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do good." Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy... Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity." Dr. King uses these impactful words to tell the clergymen that freedom for African-Americans will happen and that this is what needs to happen to pull it off. Wrapped up in grandness of this paragraph, King infuses these words with a great amount of emotion designed to pull at the clergymen's sense of duty to his fellow man and convey the simple fact that his actions have not been "unwise and untimely," it has just been a long time

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