Rhetorical Analysis Of The Letter From Birmingham Jail

The Letter from Birmingham Jail proclaims the truth of black suffering out to the white community readers. In Birmingham, it is well known that racial injustice has taken a widespread over the black general public; they are faced with police brutality and the consequences of unjust treatments. Consequently, there are more unsolved bombings of black homes and churches in Birmingham compared to other cities in the country. Their own church, where their family, neighbors, and friends come to peacefully worship were targeted by a hate group. When the victimized communities seek justice, they are ignored.

Martin Luther king wrote the letter from Birmingham jail and discuss the biggest issues in the black community of Birmingham. In order to justify his desire for racial justice and equality, martin Luther king uses knowledge and potential thoughts given toward to his letter transcending to his people and the churches and he made very important valid statement that gave his audience and open mind and to encourage American society desegregation and having equality among all Americans with no stratification according to racial differences. His letter addresses the American society, political and religious community of America. King uses metaphors saying “ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning

Martin Luther King Jr. was able to transmit the oppression of African American from a jail cell through the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. With more than 6500 words, Martin Luther King Jr. touched the subject of segregation and injustice of the African American. One cluster that stood out the most was cluster 30, where King was able to explain why the African American was forced to express their birth given right of freedom after endless promises of justice during the Civil Rights Movement. Through the use of Logos, Martin Luther King Jr. was able to connect with the reader by using logic to convince his audience and quoting passages from Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Prophet Amos. Furthermore, by the use of pathos Dr. King was

Dr. King wrote the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in response to a letter written by the Eight Alabama Clergymen who were protesting the progress of desegregation in Birmingham through peaceful acts by the Negro community. King responds to the eight clergymen in a respectful but yet stern and intelligent way. The clergymen expressed that they felt the Negro community 's actions were untimely, unwise, and disrespectful. The clergymen felt that these ethnic issues should be addressed in a court room and not on the corner. Although they understood where King was coming from, they felt like these actions would result in violence.

In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr., he explains to the eight clergy men, whom had previously criticized him, and to the rest of America about why he is in Birmingham. King wrote this letter to persuade and answer the criticism of why his present activities were NOT “unwise and untimely.” While writing this, King uses the three Aristotelian Appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos to fully explain his points. Throughout the second paragraph, Martin Luther King began to build his credibility.

”(King,800) Correlations between the just and unjust behaviors of Birmingham to Biblical events were meant persuade the churches of Birmingham to see the plight of the African Americans and to see the injustices that were being done to the citizens of that city. In his writing, King recalled, “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”

In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he uses pathos and rhetorical questions to appeal towards the readers. Pathos is showed in King’s letter when he says, “Too long has out beloved southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue.” (7) This quote supports pathos because King is saying we should be living in a world of dialogue not monologue, also he talks about his beloved southland. This makes the readers have sympathy for the tragic issue. Rhetorical is used to appeal towards the readers in Kings letter when he states the question, “But can this assertion be logically made?”

Freedom is the power that allows people to self-determine his or her ideas, it allows people to have the right to act, speak or think without being restraint. The reality of freedom is how individuals see their freedom; for instance, Dr. King got locked in jail for describing his freedom, but others define his freedom differently. Individuals choices, how they want to establish their freedom. One’s person freedom could be someone’s prison. Although people defined that freedom is having unrestricted rights, but limitation create true freedom since it spreads equality to everyone.

The criticism made by the these eight clergyman epitomize the idea of whiteness and white privilege. Rather than to offer assistance and guidance for King and his efforts to diminish racial injustices prevalent in the South, they, instead, offer criticism in an attempt to depreciate King’s fight for racial equity. This rhetoric has occurred often throughout American history, where we see white individuals devaluing and hindering the progress made by individuals of color. For example, one of the critiques that King received was that The Negro community should be more patient and wait for society to move gradually toward civil rights. What white individuals fail to understand is that there is no such thing

Dr. King uses pathos in this paragraph and throughout his letter as well as ethos and logos. King’s tone changes from the ethos reasoning to a vigorous pathos of all the pain African American suffered. Likewise, in paragraph 14 his intended audience; the clergymen, to some extent, has them trapped by the dazzling use of semicolons. The long sentences leave no room for us to pause or to reflect. Dr. King illustrates in agonizing detail through the suffering of not only African American children but the community as a

Martin Luther King Jr. was a master of rhetoric, and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a prime example of his persuasive abilities. In this letter, he used three rhetorical appeals – ethos, pathos, and logos – to persuade the clergyman that injustice was present in Birmingham and that his actions were appropriate. Firstly, MLK Jr. used ethos, referring to his credibility and character, to convince the clergyman. He established his authority on the subject by stating that he had been invited by the Birmingham affiliate of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which he was the president.

Martin Luther King Jr. uses pathos and parallelism frequently throughout “Letters from Birmingham Jail,” to persuade the clergyman to support his actions in the civil rights movement. One example of King’s use of pathos appeals to the audience’s emotions by showing King’s confidence in his endeavors. “I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham; even if our motives are presently misunderstood... Abused and scorned through we may be, our destiny is tied with the destiny of America.” (Page 9)

Civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had protested for civil rights throughout the most segregated places within the united states of America (at the time). Typically, Dr. King and other civil rights activists were arrested through breaking some unjust law in a moral and humane manner. Dr. King’s arrest in Birmingham CIty, Alabama, was one such famous event, as within the confines of Jail he responded to the bigoted arguments against civil rights. Dr. King achieved this through employing the rhetorical strategies of logical reasoning, appeal to emotion, & anaphora.

“...when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.” (MLK, 276). King uses this strong sense of appeal to emotion to engross his readers and let them know how hard it is for them.

“There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair” ( King, Martin Luther). King introduces this quote in order to display that African Americans have been put down for so long, that they are no longer inclined to undergo further discrimination. In August 1963, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written by Martin Luther King Jr in the occasion of segregation issues and the fact that he showed up to Birmingham. His letter addressed the eight white religious leaders of the South in response to a public statement of concern and caution that was issued by the leaders; King was trying to make a point about how