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Letter From Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Peace Over Animosity Martin Luther King Jr., widely regarded as one of the most impactful and influential peaceful protestors of all time, carries many characteristics that categorize him as a leader. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, King traveled across the country in his search for constitutional freedom and recognition for African Americans. King’s protests started in 1955 during the bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama, and ended in 1968 after King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. In his famous prison note, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” King emphasizes and creates arguments based on certain injustices that have victimized him and his people, prior to, and after, catapulting him into this leadership position. King’s position on segregation …show more content…

powerfully utilizes the likes of pathos and logos to appeal to the reasons of the general intended audience of the average white males and females, in addition to other government officials who have power and control the destiny over the public. Pathos, which appeals to the emotions of the reader, is utilized on many different occasions throughout “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” as King vividly describes the suffering and emotional distress that the African American population was facing in America at that time. For instance, King invokes the use of pathos by recounting the emotional toll taken on him and his people, exclaiming, “When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television...you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos, ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’...then you will understand why we find it emotion for the common white man, and to display that the pain the African American community endured on a daily basis did not go unfelt, and that every harsh and explicit word uttered towards them carries a heavy

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. effectively used pathos and logos in both his “I Have a Dream” speech and the “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” using both to further his ideas and his push for racial equality. Dr. King uses logos to appeal to the clergymen’s sense of logic in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. First, Dr. King uses logos to define “just and unjust laws” (17), attempting to convince the clergymen of how the actions that placed him in jail were, in fact, moral. In paragraph sixteen, Dr. King defines his idea of just and unjust laws, ”Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (16).

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Civil rights activist, Martin Luther king Jr., in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, responds to the clergymen who criticized his work and ideas. King’s purpose is to achieve an understanding for the desire of freedom. He expresses a confident tone in order to appeal to similar feelings the clergymen may have when he talks about freedom to help bond brotherhood. Throughout the beginning of the text, King explains why he is in Birmingham and because now is the time to take action, therefore he uses formal language to create a familiar or colloquial diction.

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s primary purpose in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is to justify his presence and involvement in the peaceful protests taking place in Birmingham as well as to condemn the world of unjust segregation and racism. By employing logos continuously in his writing, King develops and contributes to his position in support of peaceful protests and direct action programs that are meant to bring to African Americans the “unalienable rights” that they are being denied. He writes the letter in 1936 from his prison cell in Birmingham jail, replying to a public letter written by several clergymen. His well-thought written logic appeals to the intended audience but also indirectly addresses the divided nation.

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LFBJ Martin Luther King (MLK) uses Pathos to persuade his readers and uses rhetorical questions. MLK appeals to his audience when he states, “ In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (King 6) MLK. MLK used pathos here to link with the reader’s emotions. It makes the audience think about justice vs. injustice.

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Martin Luther King was a very powerful speech writer, as well as great at getting the point across through paper. In two of his most famous works of art, “I Have a Dream” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” he uses many different types of writing tools. Some of these writing tools include, analogies, rhetorical questions, and repetition. Some tools are only used in one or the other because it either wouldn’t make sense, or it would bring down the strength of the words within the work. The use of analogies is very common in his work.

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The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written by Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the criticisms of his fellow clergymen and makes them feel ashamed toward their viewpoints and actions of African Americans and racial segregation. By using various rhetorical strategies, primarily the appeal to unity and various allusions, to influence the clergymen to join his fight against racial injustice. King uses “Fellow Clergymen” as his greeting in order to create a sense of unity and create a comradery based pathway to express his message. Being a clergyman himself he uses it specifically in order target the white clergyman audience, but also opens it for the rest of America to express his message of anti-segregation. This allows a respectful greeting of

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Summary/Assessment: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which is an organization operating in every Southern state with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He came to Birmingham, Alabama because injustice lies there and helped protest about it in a nonviolent demonstration against racial discrimination. The eight clergymen of the South did not approve of these demonstrations happening which caused Dr. King to be confined in Birmingham Jail cell, writing a letter to them men explaining on why he was in Birmingham and what his reasons were for these protests. He begins to talk about and explain the four basic steps that needed to be followed for any nonviolent campaign. He also gives the audience a better understanding by giving a visual glimpse of what the black community had to endure.

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He does so by opening with a story about his emotional experiences and events. This is shown in the statement, “[w]hile confined here in the Birmingham city jail.” As King writes, he uses emotionally loaded language to prove his points; such as, “confined,” “we were the victims of a broken promise,” “our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us,” and “white power structure.” This brings a negative overview on the ‘white man’ and how King and other African Americans were treated unfairly.

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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.”

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Dr. Martin Luther was sent to Birmingham, Alabama Jail because he was being considered an outsider. He writes a letter to the clergymen to respond to their criticism of his campaign. To develop his argument that his activities are not "unwise and untimely," King uses various rhetorical devices and appeal. In his beginning paragraphs, King uses ethos in his writing as an attempt to establish credibility.

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Martin Luther King Jr.'s Strategy To Achieve Racial Equality Sitting in an air-tight, compact cell in the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. writes in the margins of a newspaper in Birmingham, Alabama, creating a new perspective on the world’s prejudiced viewpoint on injustice, discrimination, and segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was one of American history's most crucial social movements that forced inclusivity and equality between African Americans and white people during the 1950s and 1960s. King was an American minister and one of the most distinguished Civil Rights activists supporting the black race all over America fight for equality. In “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King responded

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Throughout American history, many African Americans did not have their proper rights. During the 1960s, many key individuals used their voices in favor of this, such as Martin Luther King Jr. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" Dr. King uses multiple rhetorical devices to provoke people to fight for justice. Dr. King’s decision to use his personal experience throughout the “Letter from Birmingham” helped inspire the children and students to march and protest. As he is jailed in Birmingham, he wrote a letter addressing the eight clergymen as well as to bring words of inspiration to the people on the outside.

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623 Words | 3 Pages

King uses pathos to tap into his audience’s mind to think about the importance of promoting action now rather than waiting for others to promote it first. He ends his letter by stating that he “hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation”. (King Jr., p. 658) Dr. King is a man of great integrity and love. He wanted to bring his fellow brother and sister together as a nation strong and not divided.

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Martin King 's “A Letter From A Birmingham Jail” is a sophisticated argument that gets to the point, but also gets deep and emotional. Unlike Swift, King uses ethos, pathos, and logos to get into the personal level of his audience. While pointing out his valid ideas and arguments with reason. With getting on the personal level King explained to the peoples on his view of what was right and unjust. I believe King’s letter had a stronger argument than Swifts because King knew what his ultimate goal was.

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