Literary Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Literary Devices of Martin Luther King Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail effectively disproved the points made by the Alabama Clergymen in their public statement that attacked the actions taken by African Americans, including King himself, whom participated in demonstrations against racism. Literary devices were King’s fuel in this piece, advancing his counter arguments and aiding key persuasive elements. His use of diction created a deep sense of imagery that had the power to put the reader into a place of true agreement. Hypophora added logical bases that supported King’s words and his arguments. Apostrophe of both religious and historical figures added evidence and credibility that was needed to make King’s letter a true

Asking a questions to open a transition gave King the opportunity to make certain points from the clergymen’s statement sound absurdly wrong. “Isn’t negotiation a better path?” (King 11) opened King’s argument that negotiation, prefered by the clergymen and all, is indeed fostered through non-violent demonstrations like the ones put together by King and his followers. Asking the question of negotiation and then proceeding to answer the question created a stronger argument for King that allowed him to show his audience that he was in fact agreeing with them, only to some degree. “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” (King 16) is another example in which King created an opening question to advance his direction towards the difference between just and unjust laws. This not only gave King a strong opening, but also gave way for a strong, hard-to-beat answer. “In you statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion?” (King 26) again produces a great transition to a new argument, and great information to back it up with. King is using a specific piece from the clergymen’s statement to question in particular, making his audience think about its value. Hypophora added great ways of transition for

When words from respected figures in history are taken and used in an argument, it creates difficulty for anyone who tries to undermine that argument. If one opposes an argument in which a great figure would have accepted, he/she would also feel as though he/she is opposing that figure. “Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’...so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom-” (King 3) is one example in which King mentions respected figures in religion to further his argument. King is using the prophets to compare their work to his, creating a great appeal to ethos by describing the credibility of his choices. “Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals” (King 13) exemplifies the way in which King uses someone else whom is more trustworthy in the eyes of the clergymen to describe his argument. This piece is used by King to explain how groups of higher status do not give up their privileged rights, even when they should; this furthers King’s argument that his demonstrations were in fact necessary for progress. “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal’” (King 23) is also an example in which King