Initially, the eight Birmingham clergymen are the audience and while they were not overtly racist, King uses rhetoric meant to have them understand his urgency. Magnifying the differences between two things and repeating statements with similar structure brings about emotion to realize the wrongness of the injustice of civil. Here are more examples of parallel structure within "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that I find especially powerful. "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Analysis. In the letter, Dr. King uses ethos, diction, and allusions when defending nonviolent protest which makes his argument really strong. King intended for the entire nation to read it and react to it. There are people in the white community that are already standing hand-in-hand with them and their dreams. Later in the letter, parallelism is used to contrast just laws and unjust laws. This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. But the strongest influential device King used was pathos. In his letter King effectively manipulates language and tone to strengthen his argument against the complaints of the clergyman and successfully address the white people. 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. 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. you can use them for inspiration and simplify your student life. Lastly, the exigence of a rhetorical piece is the external issue, situation, or event in which the rhetoric is responding to. Repetitions help the writer give structure to his arguments and highlight important aspects. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. twists the perspective of his audience -- Southern clergymen -- to create antithetic parallelism in Letter from Birmingham Jail. 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. Similarly, King uses pathos to trigger the emotional . He deliberately tries to make the audience feel as if racial segregation is both wrong and against basic morals. In the "Letter from Birmingham Jail", written by Martin Luther King Jr., King delivers a well structured response to eight clergymen who had accused him of misuse of the law. Letter from Birmingham Jail. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, 29 May 2019, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/letter-birmingham-jail. Black Americans were forced to sit behind buses and kids were to use old books and uniforms of White Americans. Kings goes on to say how racial equality can not be achieved until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream (King). Kings decision to compare his efforts to those of biblical figures with shared intent was a deliberate attempt to find common ground with his initial readers, the eight religious Birmingham clergymen, through the faith of a shared religion. King's letter from Birmingham Jail addresses the American society, particularly the political and religious community of the American society. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. 25 terms. Using emotional appeals captures an audience's attention and makes them think about what the narrator is saying. After reading "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", ask your students to do a scavenger hunt using the storyboard creator. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing. 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. Though this letter was intended for the judgemental and condescending men of high faith, his response touched the hearts and minds of the entire U.S. population, then, and for years to come. Dr. King wrote, This wait has almost always meant never. This is why Dr. king addresses this matter in a letter about the battle of segregation. That sentence magnifies the fact that good people doing nothing is the same as bad people purposely hindering civil rights. In this example, King employs antithesis to highlight the logical structure and urgency of his argument against inequity, which allows him to establish logos. Letter from Birmingham Jail; McAuley ELA I HON. Civil rights is an emotional subject for those who were affected by it, and MLK is proving his argument on civil disobedience. King has explained this through many examples of racial situations, factual and logical reasoning, and . Throughout Kings letter, he used various ways of persuasive strategies: pathos, logos, and ethos. Specifically he targeted the clergymen who made laws at that time. Besides the use of pathos, King uses repetition to enhance the effectiveness of his argument. The letter goes on to explain his choice to act directly and nonviolently, stating, For years now I have heard the word wait. It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. King goes on to explain how this right has not been kept, making it appear to be similar to a laid-back rule. Laws should build up society to be better so that a law is not need to be enforced and people will still follow it. Therefore, as King fabricates antithetic parallelism, he constructs logos and persuades the audience to take prompt action against injustice through the careful juxtaposition of inverse statements. Martin Luther King, more than any other figure, shaped American life from the mid-"'"50s to the late "'"60s. Fred Shuttlesworth, defied an injunction against protesting on Good Friday in 1963. The problem is that this kind of thinking can spread and infect other people to believe this is acceptable. Furthermore, Dr. King had four steps to achieve his goals by collecting facts, negotiation, self-purification, and direct, Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a response to Dr. King's follow clergymen criticism. Introduction. King responds with complete confidence that he is in the right place at the right time, and that his actions are necessary. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" "United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. King gives a singular, eloquent voice to a massive, jumbled movement. Analysing a rhetorical situation clarifies why a text was created, the purpose in which it was written, and why the author made specific choices while writing it. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. This evidence, revealing MLKs use of pathos, was used to reach out to the emotional citizens who have either experienced or watched police brutality. 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 Bitzer, Lloyd F. The Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy & Rhetoric, vol. 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. Get professional help and free up your time for more important things. But immediately after Dr. King speaks out on how after 100 years Blacks still do not have the free will that is deserved. What type/s of rhetorical device is used in this statement? 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). This use of parallel structure emphasizes how just and unjust laws can look deceptively similar. The main argument Dr. King is making in the letter is the protest being done in Birmingham is "wise" and most important "timely". In this example, King implements logos to create a cohesive argument that appeals to the rational side of his audience: Southern clergymen. 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. The rhythm and frequent repetition are used to drive home his key points, stressing the importances of his goal. At the time, Birmingham was one of the harshest places to live in America for African Americans; white supremacy groups would set off bombs to instill fear in the black community and withhold racial integration, and peaceful protests and sit-ins were met with unjustifiable police violence, in addition to the suffocating social qualms surrounding the black community (Eskew). Its important to note that his initial readers/supporters greatly impacted the scope of his audience, spreading the letter through handouts, flyers, and press, in the hopes that others would be impacted for the better by the weight of the exigence at hand. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a civil rights activist that fought for the rights of African Americans in 1963. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and, Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong leader in the Civil Rights movement, the son and grandson of a minister, and one heck of a letter writer. Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail.. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. Kings arguments induce an emotional response in his readers. 262). 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. Lastly, the exigence of a rhetorical piece is the external issue, situation, or event in which the rhetoric is responding to. Parallelism takes many forms in literature, such as anaphora, antithesis, asyndeton, epistrophe, etc. He uses a large number of rhetorical devices in his letter to reach his goal, including point of view, imagery, and rhetorical questions. Choose one type of reason and cite an example from these lines. Dr. King was arrested, and put in jail in Birmingham where he wrote a letter to the clergymen telling them how long Blacks were supposed to wait for their God giving rights and not to be force and treated differently after, In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail from jail in Birmingham, Alabama in response to a public statement issued by eight white clergyman calling his actions unwise and untimely. Analysing a rhetorical situation clarifies why a text was created, the purpose in which it was written, and why the author made specific choices while writing it. In paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses. King establishes his position supported by historical and biblical allusions, counterarguments, and the use of rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos. However, they each have different ideas about freedom, and about what they want their audience to do. In his "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," Martin Luther King Jr. presents an argument through analogy by comparing his situation to Apostle Paul. From the very beginning of it , King brings his crowd back to the origin of America when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, that freed all slaves and gave hope to the former slaves. He approaches his argument with logic and appealing to the people of Birminghams emotions. 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. Dr. King goes on to say that laws that do not match what the Bible says are unjust. There isn't quite as much of that in "Letter From Birmingham Jail," but it still pops up a couple of times. 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). Throughout the letter critics are disproved through Kings effective use of diction and selection of detail. This essay was written by a fellow student. Just as well, King uses his aspirations to create ideas within the listeners. Without King, America would be probably still heavily segregated. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. To get a high-quality original essay, click here. parallelism really etches into the audience's mind the seemingly never-ending hardships blacks face and the repetition makes it seem like a regular routine they endure. He writes of his own problems that may apply to the daily struggles of the abused African, Parallelism In Speech From Birmingham Jail, Throughout the speech, another scheme King uses frequently is parallelism, the strategy of repeating similar clauses, several times.
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