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Rhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a knowledgeable speaker, letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963) defends himself against the eight clergymen in which he explains his motive towards civil rights and tries to justify the needs for nonviolent actions. Dr. King’s primary focus was to answer the criticism of the church leaders. His secondary audience was the white moderate and the religious population. Dr King’s letter addresses that the white attitudes towards African Americans were hostile as they were unable to accept the civil rights movement, especially in the South. Throughout the letter, he uses various literary and rhetorical devices to justify his actions and show why they should not be illegal.
King creates an irritated tone in this letter, to proclaim his annoyance to the clergymen who were criticizing him. He feels he …show more content…
It shows that Dr. King is a knowledgeable speaker and can base his arguments off of other great people in the past. Allusion also shows that he is not the only one who proclaimed this, and other top names in our country support him. It shows that he can be trusted and followed, as well as, take time to use other people's words in his argument. One example of this is when he writes, “Was not Jesus an extremist of love? -- ‘Love your enemies, bless those them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.’” Here, he quotes Matthew 5:44 to show that even Jesus preached about loving your enemies when he walked the earth. In that same paragraph, he quotes many other known people like, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther, and Thomas Jefferson, simply to prove that he does not stand alone in his beliefs. He uses pathos and logos to make his argument stronger, allusion to show his knowledge, and an irritated tone to convey that King is annoyed with his critics. Throughout this letter, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shows the talent that he has as a writer and his dedication to the Civil Rights

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