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Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Prompt:
Select significant sections of King’s letter to analyze - areas you consider to be the most persuasive and emphatic. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies of the selected text. Support your analysis with specific references to the text. Be sure to utilize the rubric in order to meet the essential criteria.

Through the act of peaceful protest without a permit in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. While imprisoned, King wrote a letter intended for his fellow clergymen. In this letter, he addressed several criticisms that were being made about him and his movement. He used this to structure his letter in a coherent manner, all the while using several rhetorical …show more content…

“Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds” is a prime exemplification of this. It raises a moral question as well as a logical one. How is it that someone that rightfully lives within the borders of a country be so heavily discriminated against by its own citizens? A second way he logically justifies his breaking of the law is when he says, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal’.” Ethos and pathos are also evident throughout the letter. Taking a look back at paragraph 10, the picture that King paints stirs emotions within the reader. By describing the struggle and horrors that blacks go through, King makes the reader question the current system and why it’s the way it is.
The “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is a strong piece of literature that sends an impactful message. He is able to justify all of his actions and effectively persuade the reader into siding with him. With intelligent use of rhetorical devices, King only furthered his agenda. It’d be difficult to allow things to continue the way they are after reading such a logical and efficient

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