Correspondingly, King urges the clergy to reconsider the horse-and-buggy pace of their methods of action through his logos. King is not speaking only of racism; he is speaking of injustice in general. Find step-by-step Literature solutions and your answer to the following textbook question: Identify the parallel structures in the following sentence from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and explain their effect. In. Letter from Birmingham Jail. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, 29 May 2019, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/letter-birmingham-jail. Here, King combines divergent interpretations of justice to demonstrate the gravity of the injustice that he confronted in Birmingham. He needed something, that special something, that would ignite the fire that had somehow died out. In Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter From Birmingham Jail and I Have a Dream speech he uses many different rhetorical devices. 808 certified writers . When Dr. King first arrived in Birmingham, trouble occurred when he and fellow activists were . The topic of Dr. Kings letters from a Birmingham prison is the nonviolent protest being done in Birmingham, Alabama in the fight for African Americans civil rights. He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. He uses a large number of rhetorical devices in his letter to reach his goal, including point of view, imagery, and rhetorical questions. Engels . Any subject. Several clergy who negatively critiqued Kings approach of seeking justice, wrote A Call for Unity, arguing that his protests were senseless and improper. Identify the parallel structures in the following sentence from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and explain their effect. 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'"' is a clearly written essay that explains the reasons behind, and the methods of nonviolent civil disobedience, and gently expresses King's disappointment with those who are generally supportive of equal rights for African-Americans. Despite this, the clergy never questions whether or not segregation is unjust. They were arrested and held in . 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. There are three main considerations to make while analysing a rhetorical situation: the constraints, the exigence, and the audience. 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 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. 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. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere!" 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 Some clergymen, mostly white American men, believe the nonviolent protest Dr. King and African Americans were during was "unwise" and "untimely". 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. In order to dispel any misguided ideas that whites have of the Negroes fortune, King tells them directly that Negroes are in poverty as everybody is blocking them from entering the ocean of material prosperity. The second time King uses antithesis is when he states that Nineteen Sixty-Three is not an end, but a beginning, which he aims to express that the revolution will not stop at 1963; rather it will have a new beginning. Required fields are marked *. 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/. While his letter was only addressed to the clergymen, it is safe to assume that King had intent on the public eventually reading his letter, considering his position within the Civil Rights movement, use of persuasive rhetorical language, and hard-hitting debates on the justification of law. 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. 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. 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). Civil rights is an emotional subject for those who were affected by it, and MLK is proving his argument on civil disobedience. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing. Black Americans were forced to sit behind buses and kids were to use old books and uniforms of White Americans. for only $11.00 $9.35/page. 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. 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. 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. In paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses. 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. You may use it as a guide or sample for writing your own . His masterful delivery of these metaphors and the frequent repetition makes the speech much like a poem or a part of a song. King understood that if he gained support from the white American, the civil rights movement would reach its goals much faster. 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. For example, to use parallelism in a sentence in which you list a series of elements, each element typically has the same form. 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. He evokes emotion on his audience by discussing the trials and injustice African Americans have endured. Martin Luther King, more than any other figure, shaped American life from the mid-"'"50s to the late "'"60s. All of this accumulates into an unwavering social constraint placed on Martin Luther Kings rhetorical text. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. By stating the obvious point and implying that moderates act as though this was not true, he accuses them of both hypocrisy and injustice. He approaches his argument with logic and appealing to the people of Birminghams emotions. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. 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. While his actions may not have had much success at first during the 1960s what made his arguments so powerful was his use of pathos and logos., In Dr. Martin Luther Kings letter from Birmingham, he targeted specific people who he wrote the letter for including everybody. Since Kings arrest he had time to think deeply about the situation; therefore, he decides to reply back to the Alabama clergymen. Your email address will not be published. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., King addressed the concerns of the white clergy and gave support to the direct action committed by African Americans. 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. 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. Martin Luther in Birmingham Jail, The Atlantic. These circumstances lead us to our next rhetorical focus: audience. 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. Dr. King goes on to say that laws that do not match what the Bible says are unjust. 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). In this way, King asserts that African-Americans must act with jet-like speed to gain their independence. Letter to Birmingham Jail is a response to a group of Birmingham ministers who voiced negative comments and questioned the civil rights demonstrations Dr. King was leading in Birmingham. 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. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. Dr. King fought against segregation between Black Americans and White Americans. 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. If your first two elements are verbs, the third element is usually a verb, too. As the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s unfolded, Martin Luther King Jr. had, perhaps, the most encompassing and personal rhetorical situation to face in American history. Glenn Eskew, Bombingham: Black Protest in Postwar Birmingham, Alabama, 1997. Emotional appeal uses intense words and charged language to grab listeners to get them to keep listening. 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. Lincoln states, We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. What he says means that the soldiers lost their lives to give us freedom. After reading "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", ask your students to do a scavenger hunt using the storyboard creator. Firstly, and most daunting, is the constraint of the letters audience. Good uses of similes, metaphors, and imagery will act on the reader's senses creating a false sense of perception. 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. 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. It was important for King to address this audience as their support would ultimately make the largest difference in the movement. Dr. . Consequently, Birmingham became the core of the Civil Rights movement, pumping the life-blood of social change into the rest of the country. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. Besides the use of pathos, King uses repetition to enhance the effectiveness of his argument. King had been arrested while participating in a peaceful anti-segregation march although several local religious groups counted on King for support. 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. Introduction. 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. Note: All essays placed on IvyMoose.com are written by students who kindly donate their papers to us. The following well-known adage is an example of parallelism: "Give a . 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. 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. 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. To minimize the possibility of being deemed invalid due to his race, he must choose what he states and how he states it very precisely which correlates to the constraints Martin Luther himself has on his rhetorical situation. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bitzer, Lloyd F. The Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy & Rhetoric, vol. Martin Luther Kings "letter from Birmingham Jail" strives to justify the desperate need for nonviolent direct action, the absolute immorality of unjust laws together with what a just law is. 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. 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.