The main argument Dr. King is making in the letter is the protest being done in Birmingham is "wise" and most important "timely". This evidence, revealing MLKs use of pathos, was used to reach out to the emotional citizens who have either experienced or watched police brutality. One example of parallelism he uses is, But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity (Barnet and Bedau 741). 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. He does an exceptional job using both these appeals throughout his speeches by backing up his emotional appeals with logical ones. 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. 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. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both works utilizes the persuasive techniques of pathos in Dream and logos in Birmingham. Both of the works had a powerful message that brought faith to many. 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. 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). 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 utilizes powerful rhetoric to define his exigence. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. Martin Luther King Jr. was an important figure in gaining civil rights throughout the 1960s and hes very deserving of that title as seen in both his I Have a Dream speech and his Letter from Birmingham Jail letter. He wrote the letter in response to criticisms made by white clergymen. This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. 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. In his "Letter form a Birmingham Jail" and his "I have a Dream speech, Dr. King uses metaphor, repetition and parallel structure to provide visual images which may evoke empathy in the readers and audience and emphasize the ideas he presents: the argument for civil rights and the goal to end segregation. A seminal text of the Civil Rights Movement, King's, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, justifies the measures that brought about his arrest, and asseverates that the segregation laws against blacks in the south must be repealed. Dr. King was the foremost civil rights leader in America in the 1950s and 1960s who was ordained minister and held a doctorate in theology. 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. In this way, King juxtaposes the unscrupulous principles of the clergy with his righteous beliefs to highlight the threat of injustice, which he seeks to combat with hope. 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. What are some examples of parallelism in letter from Birmingham jail? Firstly, and most daunting, is the constraint of the letters audience. This comes to endanger our entire society. Letter from a Birmingham Jail AP.GOPO: PRD1.A (LO) , PRD1.A.2 (EK) Google Classroom Full text of "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. 16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." While in solitary confinement for nearly 8 days, reverend and social justice activist, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to the criticism he received for his non-violent protests. Laws should build up society to be better so that a law is not need to be enforced and people will still follow it. Parallelism In Letters From Birmingham Jail 172 Words1 Page 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. Although Kings reply was addressed to the Alabama clergyman, its target audience was the white people. The rhythm and frequent repetition are used to drive home his key points, stressing the importances of his goal. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. 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. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was this line, "We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right." King was the leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement as well as an activist for humanitarian causes. In terms of legacies, Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of someone whose legacy has left an impact on a great many fields. You can order a custom paper by our expert writers. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. The constraints surrounding Martin Luther Kings rhetorical situation include the audience, the rhetorical exigence of the situation he is responding to, Dr. King himself, and the medium, all of which are deeply connected. King strategically persuades. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Allusion Essay. Because of his skill in creating such pieces of writing, as well as his influential role within the Civil Rights Movement, and the reminder that Letter from Birmingham Jail provides of these trying times, his letter should continue to be included within A World of Ideas. 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). 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. Kings use of pathos gives him the ability to encourage his fellow civil rights activists, evoke empathy in white conservatives, and allow the eight clergymen and the rest of his national audience to feel compassion towards the issue. 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. 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. We will write a custom Essay on King's Allusion in "Letter From Birmingham Jail" specifically for you. He opens with an explanation to his response, stating, Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideasBut since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms(King 1). 262). Metaphors, allusions, and rhetorical questions are used in the most skillful way to support his argument and ultimately convince his audience of the credibility behind his emotional, yet factual, claims. . 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. Correspondingly, King urges the clergy to reconsider the horse-and-buggy pace of their methods of action through his logos. As campaigning, King uses it in his speech in order to express all his points. 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). 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. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. It was important for King to address this audience as their support would ultimately make the largest difference in the movement. With the use of King's rhetorical devices, he described the ways of the Birmingham community and their beliefs, connected to the reader on an emotional level, and brought to light the overall issues dealing with segregation., The letter was ostensibly conceived in response to a letter that had recently run in a local newspaper which had claimed that the protest were "unwise and untimely." The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. Glenn Eskew, Bombingham: Black Protest in Postwar Birmingham, Alabama, 1997. Throughout the letter, Dr. King does a tremendous job of supporting his argument with the three elements of Aristotles rhetorical appeal. 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. King uses pathos to invoke anger, sympathy and empathy, his impeccable use of logos makes his argument rational to everyone, and his use of ethos, especially the use of biblical references, makes his opinions more reliable. King was the figurehead of the Civil Rights movement, infamous for his I Have a Dream speech and substantially impactful rhetoric promoting social and political change, peaceful indignation, and calls to awareness. King had been arrested while participating in a peaceful anti-segregation march although several local religious groups counted on King for support. 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. He hopes that "[o]ne day the South will know that [the Negroes] were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream" (47), and that "the evil system of segregation" (46) will come to an end. As mentioned before, the social and political ideologies in America surrounding racial equity at this time, specifically in Birmingham, were extremely poor. Just as well, King uses his aspirations to create ideas within the listeners. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere!" This letter serves as a purpose to apply the need for love and brotherhood towards one another and avoid all the unjust laws. Dr. The way Dr. King constructs his argument is as if he was preaching his argument to his congregation. King wants to bring to the readers realization the fact that laws are only to be followed when they are rightfully just and correct. Despite his support, Martin Luthers audience is one of the largest constraints in his rhetorical situation. 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 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. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. Saying it that way magnifies the imperative difference between the two types of laws. Lastly he shows ethos by using authority in his speech by using quotes from two very famous documents. 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. To achieve this, he used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to pathos and repetition. Constraints bring light to the obstacles this rhetoric may face, whether it be social, political, economical, etc. He had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress (King 267). Thus, these essays are of lower quality than ones written by experts. First, King writes that the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. This antithesis makes the audience realize that the Negroes have been left behind and ignored while the rest of modern society has charged forward into prosperity and fortune. the exigence is the continued condemnation, segregation, and prejudice afflicted against African Americans since the emancipation of the slaves in 1863. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. King provides imagery to make the audience see what it would be like to be an African American in the united, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal. Dr. King also states that one day he would like his children to be free as whites were. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. He approaches his argument with logic and appealing to the people of Birminghams emotions. Order can only be held for so long whilst injustice is around. 100% plagiarism free, Orders: 11 Pathos are present more often in the I Have A Dream speech, mainly because he is bravely facing a crowd, speaking from the heart, rather than formality. 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. The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. Parallelism is a figure of speech in which two or more elements of a sentence (or series of sentences) have the same grammatical structure. Emotional appeal uses intense words and charged language to grab listeners to get them to keep listening. 114, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40236733. The amount of original essays that we did for our clients, The amount of original essays that we did for our clients. Dr. Kings goal of this letter was to draw attention to the injustice of segregation, and to defend his tactics for achieving justice. 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). Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America till the Negro is granted his citizenship rights (King pg. Martin Luther King Jr. was born to a middle class family and was well educated. King says on page. King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, including hundreds of schoolchildren. Without King, America would be probably still heavily segregated. In the letter "Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. writes to the Clergyman to express his idea on the racial discrimination and injustice going on in Birmingham Alabama. This exigence is rhetorical because it can be improved if enough people are socially cognizant, whether that be in legislature or the streets of Birmingham, through creation and enforcement of equitable laws and social attitudes. 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. However King also deliberately wrote his letter for a national audience. They were arrested and held in . Explain why the examples fit your chosen reason. He had a great impact on race relations in the U.S. and he made a great impact on many lives. 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). In the same manner, King believed that people could unite to combat oppression. 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. Here, King offers disparate hypotheticals to illustrate the necessity for brevity in his acts. 114, Jr., Martin Luther King. 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. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character. Dr. King uses his own words to describe what he wants the nation to look like in the future. The letter was addressed to clergymen who had criticized King and made many claims against him. 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. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. Original: Apr 16, 2013. Black Americans were forced to sit behind buses and kids were to use old books and uniforms of White Americans. Being nearly symbolic, King being held prisoner in Birmingham, the most polar racial arena of the United States, made his rhetoric more effective. Not only does he use pathos to humanize himself, but he also uses it to humanize his immediate audience, the eight clergymen. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. 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. This use of parallel structure emphasizes how just and unjust laws can look deceptively similar. MLKs use of pathos and repetition is an effective way to persuade his audience about his position on civil disobedience. 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. The audience of Letter From Birmingham Jail was initially the eight clergymen of Birmingham, all white and in positions of religious leadership. Another instance of parallelism in the letter is, We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people(Barnet and Bedau 745). A letter, as a medium, is constraining as there is one definitive original copy, it is addressed to a small specific group, and since it cannot be directly broadcasted widely, opposed to television or radio, it must be printed or passed along analogically. He uses the rhetorical appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos numerous times throughout his essay to relay his argument about the laws of segregation and the African-Americans that are being cruelly treated.. All of this accumulates into an unwavering social constraint placed on Martin Luther Kings rhetorical text. King organized various non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in his arrest. 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. In addressing and confronting the problem of injustices among the black Americans in the American society, particularly the violence that had happened in Birmingham, and, Martin Luther King Jr. faced many challenges during his life. Throughout Kings letter, he used various ways of persuasive strategies: pathos, logos, and ethos. African Americans have been waiting to have there civil rights of freedom, but the social courts has requested them not protest on the street but to take it to court. Writers commonly use parallelism when there is a pair or a series of elements, or in the headlines or outlines of a document. 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. In addition, King is also in Birmingham because he feels compelled to respond to injustice wherever he finds it.
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