Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

The majority of the sentences in King’s letter can be connected to logos, pathos or ethos and his incorporation of appeals is masterful.

King makes repetitions in the lines “I have been disappointed with the white church and its leadership” (Paragraph 26) and “… I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church” (Paragraph 27). King uses repetition to put emphasis on the word disappointed, in regards to the clergymen. This supports the central idea of the call for action. They are doing nothing with helping the cause and King is trying to instill guilt into them by emphasizing his disappointment with repetition. King uses repetition again in “For years now I have heard the word ‘wait’. It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piecing familiarity. This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never’” (Paragraph 11). King uses the repetition of the word wait to support the central idea of timeliness. The emphasis of wait shows us that African Americans have always been told to wait and have never been met with a complete answer for their problems. King also employs Pathos, the appeal to emotions, with the line “… tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children” (Paragraph 11). This supports the central idea of injustice. This emotional appeal creates this sense of guilt and sympathy for the child. This especially appeals to parents that want the best for their children. A world of segregation is not one parents want their children to have to live

Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American Leader During the Civil Rights Movement. Mr.King was also a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the age of 39. He had 4 kids and a wife named Coretta Scott King. King was most important during the Civil Rights Movement. He was a very effective Civil Rights leader. He has many many speeches during his lifetime. His last words in public were I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"

uses the logical appeal in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” because in the letter he provides facts and evidence to support his appeal to his audience, who are eight white clergymen. In some points of the letter, King tries to educate his audience. For example, King says, “in any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham.” King also uses a logical appeal when he states “You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern.” When Martin Luther King Jr. uses these examples of logical appeals it shows his audience the logic reasons behind his peaceful protest for equality and segregation. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King explains the difference between two laws; just and unjust laws. In the letter, King also using logic by saying “In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.” King also states that “There is nothing new about this type of kind of civil disobedience.” He mentions the early Christians, the act of the Boston Tea Party also the Hungarian freedom fighters questioning Adolph Hitler’s legal actions as examples of unjust and just laws. The reason

In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King used ethos, pathos, and logos. He did not use ethos as much as he used pathos and logos. These rhetorical strategies was used to persuade his listeners. Pathos and logos was the most effectively used rhetorical strategies used. In paragraphs twelve through fourteen is were he uses rhetorical strategies the most, which means these were the paragraphs he persuaded he listeners to end

King uses an attacking tone in his next section. In this section, King hits the peak of emotion in his letter.

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he argues that segregation is inhumane and is hurting the American society as a whole. All the time and energy that goes into segregation is slowing down the American society’s progress to succeed as a nation. He uses several rhetoric strategies that help adopt a tone that is both personal and logical. King was able to incorporate the rhetoric triangle into his letter and still managed to address his arguments. While using pathos, ethos, and logos, Martin Luther King Jr. was able use the clergymen’s accusations to successfully promote his own views and opinions instead.

Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr in his persuasive letter, “letter from Birmingham jail” argues against segregation by using rhetorical devices. Martin Luther King Jr’s purpose is to express his struggles through segregation, he adopts an aggressive tone to get his point across to people in power.

In paragraphs 10 through 19 of Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, he argues for the urgency of changing segregation laws. King’s arguments in this letter are in response to a publication in the local newspaper by “Eight Alabama Clergymen.” These clergymen were white moderates who basically straddled the fence on the issue of segregation. Due to their neutral stance, King felt he could really convince these men that some laws needed to be changed. In paragraphs 10 and 11, King is refuting the clergymen’s statement that he should not be causing tension through demonstrations. In paragraphs 12, 13, and 14, King is responding to the clergymen's declaration that his demonstrations were “untimely.” In paragraphs 15 through 19, King provides a rebuttal to the clergymen’s statement that he is an extremist that breaks the law. In these paragraphs, King uses various rhetorical strategies or devices to make his argument.

King’s letter also appeals to the emotions. He uses pathos to appeal to his audience and at the same time influence them. For instance, he uses overwhelming truths to justify his actions he says, “When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a negro , living constantly in tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect” this will explain to the audience why it is difficult for him and his contemporaries to wait (Jnr, 2012).

Martin Luther King Jr., the author of “Letter to Birmingham Jail,” that was written in 1963, uses many rhetorical strategies throughout his letter;. Additionallyconsequently, he uses these strategies to get his points across. For example,The rhetorical devices he employsuses are repetition, he uses ethos, and he uses rhetorical questions. During the time he gave his speech, was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, segregation was happening, and racial discrimination between blacks and whites is commonplace.were not treated equally. King uses d rhetorical strategies in order to emphasize what he was most passionate about; he was his passionate about - equality and nonviolent protestings, for he was a black himself. He usesd his letter in order to bring about make a change. Therefore, he needed to really get the listeners’ attention.

Martin Luther King was an enthusiastic, inspiring, determined African American in a time where all those traits were difficult to achieve; these traits were especially complicated for him because of his skin color. He did many great things and showed communities that equality was an option to be considered. King had many impactful speeches and protests which impacted the civil rights movement in a positive way for mainly African Americans. He won the Nobel Peace Prize when he was 35, and was the youngest person to win the prize at the time. Four years after receiving the award, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on his hotel balcony. Across the country people reacted violently by rioting, protesting, and grieving over

In both works, Dr. King Jr. adopted techniques of series rhetoric, repetitions, effective use of metaphors and similes in protesting against social injustice and assuring his audience of a hope for a better tomorrow. In the letter to the clergy Dr. King Jr. invoked their thinking of what a just and unjust law was. He explained that the just law is a moral act of God’s will and the unjust law is such act instituted by men. When in conflict, he admonished society to accept the laws of God over those of men and cited instances where society had an obligation to reject unjust laws of segregation. Dr. King Jr. draws inspiration from men of historical significance to ascertain his claim and quotes

Martin Luther was a civil rights activist, a clergy and one of the key personalities behind the formation of the American Civil Rights Movement. The major goal of the movement was to advocate for the abolishment the racial discrimination of the African Americans population. King was shot on 4th April 1968 while he was his motel room at Memphis, Tennessee and was pronounced dead that evening while in hospital2. After the killing, James Earl Ray, who was convicted for murdering King, escaped but was arrested after two months in London. Many people believe that the government was involved in the assassination. Following the death of King, lots of riots and protests emerged in different cities across US.

King explains to the clergymen, whom the letter is written to, why it is important to protest peacefully as he has been doing across the United States. Dr. King says “Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home town, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to … I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town” (King 3). Dr. King refers to the Bible in the very first page because the primary audience of this letter is many Caucasian clergymen and a rabbi who criticized his being in Birmingham and his leading peaceful protests in the city. The clergymen decided among themselves that Dr. King’s protests and calls for action were annoying and unnecessary in the world they lived in. Because of this, Dr. King needed to explain his movement in a way that the clergymen would be able to understand and agree with. The Bible is something that they cannot argue with due to their religions and they are likely to listen to the argument that Dr. King wrote in his jail cell if it was deeply rooted in what they all believed in.