SophAbs. Dr. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. As example, King uses I have a dream that one day and Let freedom ring.. to open his points on how Americans should change against racial indifferences. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. Correspondingly, King urges the clergy to reconsider the horse-and-buggy pace of their methods of action through his logos. Ultimately, he effectively tackles societal constraints, whether it be audience bias, historical racism, or how he is viewed by using the power of his rhetoric to his advantage. Dr. King responded to criticism that was made by clergymen about calling Dr. King activities as "Unwise and Untimely". They were arrested and held in . Explain why the examples fit your chosen reason. He ended up creating a very persuasive letter, one that effectively uses ethos in establishing his character, logos in providing reason and logic, and pathos in reaching human emotions. King understood that if he gained support from the white American, the civil rights movement would reach its goals much faster. Thus, these essays are of lower quality than ones written by experts. In Letter from Birmingham Jail, King implements antithesis -- along with his background as a minister -- to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Southern clergymen, as he attempts to further diverge the two diametric rationales; thus, he creates logos as he appeals to the audiences logical side and urges African-Americans to act punctual in their fight against injustice, prompted by the imprudent words of the clergy. The eight clergymen in Birmingham released a public statement of caution regarding the protesters actions as unwise and untimely (King 1), to which Martins letter is a direct response. Just as well, King uses his aspirations to create ideas within the listeners. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lloyd Bitzer describes rhetorical situation as, a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action to bring about the significant modification of the exigence (6). He wanted this letter to encourage and bring up a people that will start a revolution. While there were consistent and impactful efforts made by various groups for equality throughout the civil rights era, the proximity between the public release of the letter, found nation-wide by late 1963, and the passing of the Civil Rights Act in early July 1964 shows the direct impact the letter had on social attitudes following its publicization. With his respectful nature, humility, compassion, optimism, and determination, King responded to a group of white Alabama clergymen who had condemned the civil rights protests as extreme in their open letter, A Call for Unity. Although his letter was directed towards a small group of eight men, his words eventually reached the minds and hearts of the entire country. Lines 14-43: King provides three different types of reasons in his letter to justify his presence in Birmingham: Organizational reasons, religious or historical reasons, and moral reasons. Yet his most important method of reaching his audience, and conveying his enduring message of equality and freedom for the whole nation was his appeal to pathos. By addressing his respect for the clergymen, feigned or not, he is acknowledging the effectiveness of respect to those in power, whether they may or may not deserve it. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were both two African American civil rights activists who were very prominent throughout history. His audience ranged between those who his message empowered, a radical positive force, and those who disagreed, made up of southern states, extremist groups, and the majority of American citizens stuck in their racial prejudices. and may encompass the audience, as seen while analysing, The audience of a rhetorical piece will shape the rhetoric the author uses in order to appeal, brazen, or educate whoever is exposed. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. By stating the obvious point and implying that moderates act as though this was not true, he accuses them of both hypocrisy and injustice. King says on page. While this fight had been raging for nearly 10 years, the release in 1963 was shortly followed by the Civil Rights Act in 1964. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. In the Gettysburg Address Lincoln talks about how people fought the war and how people should honor their soldiers. However, in the months that followed, Kings powerful words were distributed to the public through civil rights committees, the press, and was even read in testimony before Congress (Letter from Birmingham Jail), taking the country by storm. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a famous speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and freedom, this speech was called I have a dream. This speech was focused on ending racism and equal rights for African Americans during the civil rights movement. Take for instance when the part of the letter when Dr. King talks about different men, both biblical, Martin Luther King Jr.s goal in Letter From Birmingham Jail is to convince the people of Birmingham that they should support civil disobedience and the eventual end to the segregation laws in Birmingham. Recent flashcard sets. In response to Kings peaceful protesting, the white community viewed [his] nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist, and subsequently imprisoned the pastor (para 27). King implies that one day, all, I Have a Dream, however, played a major step into changing it. If your first two elements are verbs, the third element is usually a verb, too. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is a letter that illustrates oppression being a large battle fought in this generation and location. What type/s of rhetorical device is used in this statement? Martin Luther in Birmingham Jail, The Atlantic. When King was making his mark in American history, the United States was experiencing great social unrest due to the injustice towards their colored citizens, which would lead to social rights rallies and unnecessary violence. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King implements antithesis -- along with his background as a minister -- to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Southern clergymen, as he attempts to further diverge the two diametric rationales; thus, he creates logos as he appeals to the audience's logical side and urges African-Americans to act punctual in their He writes how the white church is often disappointed in the African Americans lack of patience and how they are quick to be willing to break laws. All of these factors influence each other to shape rhetoric, which Bitzer describes as, pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself (3), with Martin Luther Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail being a shining example. This use of parallelism draws on the emotions of personal experiences to persuade that segregation is a problem in a myriad of ways. He evokes emotion on his audience by discussing the trials and injustice African Americans have endured. This evidence, revealing MLKs use of pathos, was used to reach out to the emotional citizens who have either experienced or watched police brutality. By clicking Receive Essay, you agree to our, Essay Sample on The Effects of the Atomic Bomb, Essay Sample: The Development of the Braille System in Nineteenth-Century France, Constitution of The United StatesResearch Paper Example, Hippies In The 1960's (Free Essay Sample), Positive And Negative Impacts Of The Columbian Exchange, Essay Sample on Early River Civilizations. Finally, King uses antithesis one more time at the end of his speech, when he writes when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands. The pairs he mentions are all the direct opposites of each other, yet he says that they will all join hands together and be friends. This wait has almost always meant never (King 2). On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and nearly 50 other protestors and civil rights leaders were arrested after leading a Good Friday demonstration as part of the . Any subject. In the beginning of the speech, King goes back to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence stating that .all men, black or white, were to be granted the same rights (Declaration of Independence). In Kings speech he says, Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country (King Page 6). Yes he does criticize the white clergymen but basically he is trying to tell them that they should stop this segregation and that the black are not to be mistreated. Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at its peak in the South. In terms of legacies, Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of someone whose legacy has left an impact on a great many fields. King defends his primary thesis all throughout the length of his letter, and the arguments that he has made to prove that his thesis is true and valid will be the focus of this rhetorical analysis. Order can only be held for so long whilst injustice is around. In Letter From Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King responds to the subjectivity of law and the issue he paramounts by using precise and impactful rhetoric from inside of his jail cell. His Letter from Birmingham Jail is a work that he wrote while incarcerated in the Birmingham City Jail in response to criticism from Alabama clergymen. These "parallel" elements can be used to intensify the rhythm of language, or to draw a comparison, emphasize, or elaborate on an idea. Furthermore, as King attests to the significance of the Birmingham injustices, he utilizes antithesis to foster logos: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere; Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly (515). The rhetorical choices referenced above are riddled with pathos, also known as language utilized to persuade the audience emotionally. This audience is rhetorical as the social and political ideologies of the American people fuel democracy and are able to change the system around them through collective effort. Mistreatment of this kind is labeled as racial discrimination. Furthermore the Kings parallel structure clarifies and highlights his intent by building up to a more important point. In Martin Luther Kings Jr, Letter from Birmingham Jail the letter was a persuasive attempt to get Americans to finally see the inequality in the United States of America. Therefore this makes people see racism in a whole new light; racism has not been justified because the United States have failed to uphold their promises. King spins the constraining pressure to properly represent the movement on its head, using his rhetoric to uplift the underprivileged and leave no room in his language for criticism, proven by the continuous adoption of his messages by the public. King intended for the entire nation to read it and react to it. Note: All essays placed on IvyMoose.com are written by students who kindly donate their papers to us. Dr. King fought against segregation between Black Americans and White Americans. There isn't quite as much of that in "Letter From Birmingham Jail," but it still pops up a couple of times. In A Letter From A Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr defends his use of nonviolent protest in order to accomplish racial equality. It was important for King to address this audience as their support would ultimately make the largest difference in the movement. Therefore, these other literary devices and figures of speech are specific types of parallelism.. One of the most well-known examples of . An Unjust Law Is No Law At All: Excerpts from "Letter from Birmingham Jail" January 18, 2021 By The Editors In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're sharing excerpts from King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," one of the most important moral treatises of the twentieth century. In paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses parallel structure to compare just and unjust laws. As King disproves the arguments of the white clergymen, he utilizes antithesis to create logos; furthermore, he calls the reader to take action against injustice across the nation. 1, no. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. In both of these writings Dr. King uses logos - logical persuasion - and pathos - emotional appeal - to change the opinions of people who were for segregation and against civil rights. Despite his opposition, however, the letter is truly addressed to those who were not against King, but did not understand the urgency of his movement. His use of diction and syntax would align his mission to Gods, and show that he was in the right and the clergymen were in the wrong. Amidst the intense Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and put in solitary confinement for peacefully protesting racial discrimination and injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. Any deadline. Parallelism is a figure of speech in which two or more elements of a sentence (or series of sentences) have the same grammatical structure. Specifically, King's letter addresses three important groups in the American society: the white American political community, white American religious community, and the black American society. IvyMoose is the largest stock of essay samples on lots of topics and for any discipline. In this way, King asserts that African-Americans must act with jet-like speed to gain their independence. Both their speeches, I Have a Dream and The Ballot or the Bullet may have shared some common traits, but at the same time, differed greatly in various aspects. Lincoln says, The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. He didn 't know if people would remember what Lincoln said on November 19, 1863 but he said don 't forget that the soldiers lost their lives. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., along with many other civil activist, began a campaign to change the laws and the social attitudes that caused such a disparity. In his "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," Martin Luther King Jr. presents an argument through analogy by comparing his situation to Apostle Paul. Magnifying the differences between two things and repeating statements with similar structure brings about emotion to realize the wrongness of the injustice of civil. When Dr. King first arrived in Birmingham, trouble occurred when he and fellow activists were . While this fight had been raging for nearly 10 years, the release in 1963 was shortly followed by the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The following well-known adage is an example of parallelism: "Give a . The clergymen along with others are addressed in an assertive tone allowing them to fully understand why his actions are justified. To truly understand the effectiveness of this letter, one must rhetorically analyse the contents. Lastly, the exigence of a rhetorical piece is the external issue, situation, or event in which the rhetoric is responding to. Additionally, as he confesses to the clergy, King employs antithesis to create a rational structure that fosters logos: I agree I cant agree; small in quantity big in quality and shattered dreams hope (521 & 524-525). 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. Ralph Abernathy (center) and the Rev. Martin Luther King, more than any other figure, shaped American life from the mid-"'"50s to the late "'"60s. However King also deliberately wrote his letter for a national audience. From this revelation, the audience will also realize that it is no fault of the Negro that they have been left behind in contrast, modern society have been dragging them back through racism. Moreover, King juxtaposes contradictory statements to bolster the legitimacy of his argument against injustice -- in stark contrast to the racist beliefs held by the clergy -- which creates logos that he later capitalizes on to instill celerity within the audience. This letter is a prime example of Kings expertise in constructing persuasive rhetoric that appealed to the masses at large. Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail. The eight clergymen in Birmingham released a public statement of caution regarding the protesters actions as unwise and untimely (King 1), to which Martins letter is a direct response. This is the beginning of King's point-by-point rebuttal of the criticisms leveled against him. The continuous mistreatment of African Americans for over a century was, at last, deeply questioned and challenged nationwide with the growing popularity of the Civil Rights movement, and the topic of equality for all had divided the country. King through this letter tries to express his, "Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail, which was written in April 16, 1963, is a passionate letter that addresses and responds to the issue and criticism that a group of white clergymen had thrown at him and his pro- black American organization about his and his organization's non- violent demonstrative actions against racial prejudice and injustice among black Americans in Birmingham. Additionally, personable elements such as tone, inflection, and overall vindication behind the letter are left to be determined by the rhetorical language. During the era of the civil rights movements in the 60s, among the segregation, racism, and injustice against the blacks, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial to deliver one of the greatest public speeches for freedom in that decade. There are three main considerations to make while analysing a rhetorical situation: the constraints, the exigence, and the audience. These two techniques played a crucial role in furthering his purpose and in provoking a powerful response from the audience that made this speech memorable and awe-inspiring. All of this accumulates into an unwavering social constraint placed on Martin Luther Kings rhetorical text. His passionate tone flowed through these strategies, increasing their persuasive power on the people and encouraging them to follow/listen to his message on racial injustice. With this addressed, his audience was truly the population of the United States, especially Birmingham, with a focus on those who withheld and complied with the oppression of African American citizens, even if not intentionally. The main argument Dr. King is making in the letter is the protest being done in Birmingham is "wise" and most important "timely". In addition, King is also in Birmingham because he feels compelled to respond to injustice wherever he finds it. Lastly, the exigence of a rhetorical piece is the external issue, situation, or event in which the rhetoric is responding to. Martin Luther King Jr. uses both logical and emotional appeals in order for all his listeners to be able to relate and contemplate his speeches. Martin Luther King then goes on to make an analogy to the Bible, portraying Apostle Pauls proliferation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in parallel to his own efforts, stating, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown (1). At this time, he is representative of the Black American population and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole he is Martin Luther King Jr., and while this is a powerful position to occupy, the constraints imposed are just as dominant. However, Martin Luther King Jr is an extremely influential figure in the field of oration and rhetoric. the exigence is the continued condemnation, segregation, and prejudice afflicted against African Americans since the emancipation of the slaves in 1863. As a black man and pacifist-forward figurehead of the Civil Rights movement, the way Martin Luther is perceived is mostly dictated by preconceived biases and is rampant, widespread, and polarized. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King typically uses repetition in the form of anaphora - repeating the same word (s) at the beginning of consecutive clauses. 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. This protest, his subsequent arrest, and the clergymens public statement ostensibly make up the rhetorical exigence, but it truly stems from a much larger and dangerous situation at hand: the overwhelming state of anti-black prejudice spread socially, systematically, and legislatively in America since the countrys implementation of slavery in Jamestown, 1619. Martin Luther King Jr. displays pathos by targeting the audiences emotion by talking about his American dream that could also be other peoples too. This website uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Early in his speech, King writes riches of freedom and security of justice and then justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. In these two examples, King is using parallelism to express that the African American wants justice and freedom by repeating them next to each other and mentally connecting them in the readers mind, which is also connected with pathos as the terms King uses subtly emphasize those words and create good feelings in the reader. King concludes with optimism about the future of the relationship between the currently segregated blacks and whites. Throughout the work, Letter from Bimingham Jail, Martin Luther constantly uses examples from historical figures in order to unite his argument that action must be taken in order to end discrimination and segregation. for only $11.00 $9.35/page. In this example, King employs antithesis to highlight the logical structure and urgency of his argument against inequity, which allows him to establish logos.