Dr. King wrote 2 famous works, Dream and Birmingham and each had a different audience and purpose. This letter serves as a purpose to apply the need for love and brotherhood towards one another and avoid all the unjust laws. 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. Firstly, and most daunting, is the constraint of the letters audience. There are three main considerations to make while analysing a rhetorical situation: the constraints, the exigence, and the audience. 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. King implies that one day, all, I Have a Dream, however, played a major step into changing it. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Just as well, King uses his aspirations to create ideas within the listeners. One example of Kings use of pathos appeals to the audiences emotions by showing Kings confidence in his endeavors. Letter From Birmingham Jail One of the most famous documents in American history is the 1963 letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. What type/s of rhetorical device is used in this statement? Parallelism is a literary device in itself, but it is also a category under which other figures of speech fall, such as those mentioned previously. Martin Luther found himself arrested on the twelfth of April 1963 after leading a peaceful protest throughout Birmingham, Alabama after he defied a state courts injunction and led a march of black protesters without a permit, urging an Easter boycott of white-owned stores (Jr., Martin Luther King). : "There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community." . Explain why the examples fit your chosen reason. King writes the letter to defend his organization's actions and the letter is also an appeal to the people, both the white and black American society, the social, political, and religious community, and the whole of American society to encourage desegregation and encourage solidarity and equality among all Americans, with no stratifications according to racial differences. samples are real essays written by real students who kindly donate their papers to us so that In this example, King employs antithesis to highlight the logical structure and urgency of his argument against inequity, which allows him to establish logos. Saying it that way magnifies the imperative difference between the two types of laws. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. 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. In this example, King manufactures logos through the creation of antithetic parallelism, as the structure of his essay provides justification for his argument against the postponement of justice. During this period in the 1960s, King was disappointed by the way the white clergy was not in support of the religious civil rights movement and Kings goal of equality as a whole. Throughout the Letter from Birmingham Jail, ethos, pathos, and logos are masterfully applied by Martin Luther King. He seeks to make them see the logic behind their protesting and make them feel ashamed and embarrassed by the way that they have been treating the African Americans. Active Themes. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere!" Later in the letter, parallelism is used to contrast just laws and unjust laws. 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. However, they each have different ideas about freedom, and about what they want their audience to do. Whether this be by newspaper, flyers, or restated by another in speech, the spread of information is slower and potentially more controllable. Furthermore the Kings parallel structure clarifies and highlights his intent by building up to a more important point. 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. Dr. 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. Martin Luther Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail is undeniably effective at responding to the rhetorical situation at hand. IvyMoose is the largest stock of essay samples on lots of topics and for any discipline. In his tear-jerking, mind-opening letter, King manages to completely discredit every claim made by the clergymen while keeping a polite and formal tone. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. 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. He takes up for his cause in Birmingham, and his belief that nonviolent direct action is the best way to make changes happen. 262). Lastly he shows ethos by using authority in his speech by using quotes from two very famous documents. In parallel structure, a writer repeats the same pattern of words or/and pattern of grammatical structure. In Letter From Birmingham Jail, the exigence is the continued condemnation, segregation, and prejudice afflicted against African Americans since the emancipation of the slaves in 1863. Engels . While the Civil Rights movement superseded the dismantling of Jim Crow, the social ideologies and lackadaisical legislature behind anti-black prejudice continued to rack the country far into the 1960s. 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. 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. 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. Here, King concedes that the clergy acts with the virtuous goal of justice in mind, which allows him to establish his argument against the manner in which they seek equality. King concludes with optimism about the future of the relationship between the currently segregated blacks and whites. Letter from Birmingham Jail: Repetition BACK NEXT This guy knew how to write a speech. 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. 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. 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. It is rather for us to be here, As it may do that, it also seems to serve more of a logical appeal because he mentions the evidence of white brotherhood. The audience of Letter From Birmingham Jail was initially the eight clergymen of Birmingham, all white and in positions of religious leadership. 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. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. 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). This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. Macbeth) in the essay title portion of your citation. Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail. The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 29 Jan. 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/letter-from-a-birmingham-jail/552461/. Emotional appeal uses intense words and charged language to grab listeners to get them to keep listening. 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. King gives a singular, eloquent voice to a massive, jumbled movement. That sentence magnifies the fact that good people doing nothing is the same as bad people purposely hindering civil rights. The letter is a plea to both white and black Americans to encourage desegregation and to encourage equality among all Americans, both black and white, along all social, political and religious ranks, clearly stating that there should be no levels of equality based upon racial differences., In Letter from Birmingham Jail, author Martin Luther King Jr. confirms the fact that human rights must take precedence over unjust laws. These circumstances lead us to our next rhetorical focus: audience. This letter occasioned his reply and caused King to write a persuasive letter "Letter from Birmingham Jail," justifying his actions and presence in Birmingham. Martin Luther King Jr. writes his letter while being held in Birmingham Jail after being arrested for participating, in a non-violent anti segregation march. King addressed these communities as the primary groups wherein racial segregation is continuously proliferated (the white American political and religious community) and points much of his arguments to and for his fellow black Americans in the society. He uses parallelism by repeating I had hoped to ironically accuse his attackers. 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. Although Dr. Kings exploits are revered today, he had opponents that disagreed with the tactics he employed. Kings arguments induce an emotional response in his readers. However, this constraint did not ultimately halt the spread of Kings message nation-wide, as it became a persuasive landmark of the civil rights movement, likely due to both his impactful position and persuasive use of rhetoric. He died in 1968. 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. Choose one type of reason and cite an example from these lines. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. Consequently, Birmingham became the core of the Civil Rights movement, pumping the life-blood of social change into the rest of the country. King responds with complete confidence that he is in the right place at the right time, and that his actions are necessary. Laws should build up society to be better so that a law is not need to be enforced and people will still follow it. Any deadline. Without King, America would be probably still heavily segregated. The biases of the audience go hand in hand with the rhetorical exigence of this letter, another large constraint in the effectiveness of his message. It was during this time that Dr. King, refusing to sit idly by, wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, one of the most inspiring documents in history. Therefore, these other literary devices and figures of speech are specific types of parallelism.. One of the most well-known examples of . Through the masterful use of analogies and undeniable examples of injustice, Kings disgruntled response to the clergies proves the justification for direct action taking place to establish equality for African Americans., Martin Luther Kings letter from Birmingham Jail was written to respond to white religious leaders who criticized his organizations actions against racial prejudice and injustice among black society in Birmingham.