Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Shadracham Jail

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On April 16, 1963, Dr, Martin Luther King and many other protesters were protesting Jim Crow laws along with racial violence when it came to black people during the civil rights era in Alabama. This ended up causing King to end up in jail. While he was in jail, he wrote a letter to the clergymen in response to them saying his presents were "unwise and untimely." In his letter, he uses rhetorical devices and appeals to justify his argument. In the beginning paragraphs, King refutes the idea that he is not an outsider. King uses analogy to compare himself to the Apostle Paul. He states in paragraph 3 that "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 …show more content…

In the story he states that many places like "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar" and soon people there started to rise up for themselves and not care about these "laws" in the text King says that stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire." The specific piece from his letter shows us not only his argument but his purpose as well, his purpose in paragraph 21 was to show not just black people, but people all over the world that even though there are laws that are not right, if you truly wanted to change them you can, now there may be problems while doing that but if you wanted to make a change you can. His argument, one would say, is that no matter what your going up against, whether it be the Supreme Court or Nebuchadnezzar, you can always take a stand. This type of claim that King uses is just another type of appeal that can support his claim that people can break unjust laws and take action instead of waiting for the justice system to do