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Analyzing Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham Jail'

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Brian Aach
Eng 101
Teresa Sweeney
6 November 2015
Letter from Birmingham Jail Throughout Martin Luther King Jr. life, he faced many hardships, one of the most known ones was facing the town of Birmingham. He went against the Clergymen to defend why he was allowed to speak in this town with a brilliant letter known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. This letter of importance was so greatly recognized and understood for its attention to literature. The argument was created by classical appeals, figurative language, and rhetorical strategies. King wrote this letter responding to the criticism demonstrated by eight prominent white clergymen.
King first develops his letter using appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos to explain how he is allowed …show more content…
The statement reads, “'in any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.” Dr. King provides evidence in the form of logos, that he is not focused just on civil rights, his attention is on the social activist campaign as well. Regarding the quote, “so I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.” King’s quote shows his credibility also known as ethos, that he was allowed to be in Birmingham. He was reaching out with true cut facts to show what is happening. Since the whole purpose of King, Jr being in Birmingham was to help stop the problems arising, he writes, “we have waited for more than three hundred years for …show more content…
To be convincing, he is forced to talk about a little unhappy girl. Using the combination of imagery and a metaphor, he wrote, “the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people.” King describes the horrible pain felt when you see racism and inequality unconsciously forced onto younger innocent kids, or even your loved ones. These devices help explain Kings pain felt to explain racism, and watch as the girl gains acceptance, of how she is treated. Imagery also appears in “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.” This explains that other areas of the world understand that segregation is wrong and moving to equalness of the people, while America is still stuck under a rock with the problems of

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