Initially, the eight Birmingham clergymen are the audience and while they were not overtly racist, King uses rhetoric meant to have them understand his urgency. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Allusion Essay. These encompass his exigence, at its most simple and precise, and validify the importance behind transforming the country in a positive way. The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws Any law that uplifts human personality is just. 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. While his supporters nation-wide were avid, determined, and hopeful, they were challenged by the opposing, vastly white population, comfortable in their segregated establishments and racist ideologies who would certainly weaponize his viewpoints. His letter has become one of the most profound pieces of literature of the 20th century, as King uses vivid examples and eloquent rhetorical devices to counter all nine arguments. The audience of Letter From Birmingham Jail was initially the eight clergymen of Birmingham, all white and in positions of religious leadership. 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. He wanted this letter to encourage and bring up a people that will start a revolution. King organized various non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in his arrest. King goes on to write that he is disappointed that white moderates care less about justice and more about order. Several clergy who negatively critiqued Kings approach of seeking justice, wrote A Call for Unity, arguing that his protests were senseless and improper. Read along here: https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.htmlop audio here: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/lett. Martin Luther King Jr. uses both logical and emotional appeals in order for all his listeners to be able to relate and contemplate his speeches. 100% plagiarism free, Orders: 11 Lincoln says, The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. He didn 't know if people would remember what Lincoln said on November 19, 1863 but he said don 't forget that the soldiers lost their lives. 1, no. 808 certified writers . "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere!" Throughout the essay, King uses several powerful tones to complement his strong opinion, Martin Luther King Jrs Letter from Birmingham Jail is one his many writings on segregation and racial inequality towards blacks in the southern American states. 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. 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. Likewise, King creates logos as he employs another antithetical statement that demonstrates the timeliness of his argument: Never voluntarily given by the oppressor must be demanded by the oppressed; Jet-like speed horse-and-buggy pace (518). Both lincolns Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech are similar in that they both express the concept of freedom to achieve their purpose. In parallel structure, a writer repeats the same pattern of words or/and pattern of grammatical structure. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. He begins strongly by explaining why he is in Birmingham in the first place, stating, So I am herebecause we were invited here. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is a letter that illustrates oppression being a large battle fought in this generation and location. The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. Later in the letter, parallelism is used to contrast just laws and unjust laws. Since Kings arrest he had time to think deeply about the situation; therefore, he decides to reply back to the Alabama clergymen. 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. 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. The audience of a rhetorical piece will shape the rhetoric the author uses in order to appeal, brazen, or educate whoever is exposed. 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. To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. To truly understand the effectiveness of this letter, one must rhetorically analyse the contents. Your email address will not be published. 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. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As he sits in a cell of Birmingham Jail in 1963, he responds to criticism from eight white clergymen. The letter goes on to explain his choice to act directly and nonviolently, stating, For years now I have heard the word wait. It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. 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 proves his authority through his explanation of his experience as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia (King 232), and he emphasizes the importance of addressing the situation to him when he says, seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas, referring to the people of Birminghams resistance to the civil protests that he has been leading in Birmingham (King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. mentions the atrocities of racism and describes his endless battles against it. It managed to inspire a generation of blacks to never give up and made thousands of white Americans bitterly ashamed of their actions, forging a new start for society. His masterful delivery of these metaphors and the frequent repetition makes the speech much like a poem or a part of a song. Writers commonly use parallelism when there is a pair or a series of elements, or in the headlines or outlines of a document. In A Letter From A Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr defends his use of nonviolent protest in order to accomplish racial equality. Repetition. As campaigning, King uses it in his speech in order to express all his points. The concept of parallelism in letters from birmingham jail by martin luther king jr.. http://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/the-concept-of-parallelism-in-letters-from-birmingham-jail-by-martin-luther-king-jr-Q1aX8ugT Be sure to capitalize proper nouns (e.g. That sentence magnifies the fact that good people doing nothing is the same as bad people purposely hindering civil rights. 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. 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. 1, no. 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. : "There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community." . Using emotional appeals captures an audience's attention and makes them think about what the narrator is saying. While this fight had been raging for nearly 10 years, the release in 1963 was shortly followed by the Civil Rights Act in 1964. 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). He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. 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. Ultimately, he effectively tackles societal constraints, whether it be audience bias, historical racism, or how he is viewed by using the power of his rhetoric to his advantage. In his "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," Martin Luther King Jr. presents an argument through analogy by comparing his situation to Apostle Paul. 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 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. By stating the obvious point and implying that moderates act as though this was not true, he accuses them of both hypocrisy and injustice. IvyMoose is the largest stock of essay samples on lots of topics and for any discipline. Martin Luther Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail is undeniably effective at responding to the rhetorical situation at hand. 25 terms. During a civil resistance campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King was arrested. SophAbs. 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. King organized various non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in his arrest. In Martin Luther King Jrs I Have a Dream speech he effectively uses ethos, diction and powerful metaphors to express the brutality endured by African American people. They were arrested and held in . As mentioned before, the social and political ideologies in America surrounding racial equity at this time, specifically in Birmingham, were extremely poor. During this letter, King then uses the time to unroot the occasion of nonviolent protests in BIrmingham and the disappointing leadership of the clergy. 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. His mention of involvement and leadership within a Christian civil rights organization, strength of religious analogy, and general politeness are effective rhetorical choices used to shape how he is perceived despite his critical response, racial setbacks, and arrest: a relatable man of faith, rationale, and initiative. Yes he does criticize the white clergymen but basically he is trying to tell them that they should stop this segregation and that the black are not to be mistreated. Jr., Martin Luther King. In this way, King asserts that African-Americans must act with jet-like speed to gain their independence. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. Other than the speechs heartwarming and moving content, Kings effective structure along with the usage of all three rhetorical modes and certain rhetorical tropes and schemes has revealed the reason I Have a Dream as a masterpiece of rhetoric and it persuades hundreds of thousands of people support the blacks instead of treating them. Get professional help and free up your time for more important things. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and In addition, King is also in Birmingham because he feels compelled to respond to injustice wherever he finds it. He points out the irony of America because Black Americans were still not truly free. As example, King uses I have a dream that one day and Let freedom ring.. to open his points on how Americans should change against racial indifferences. In the same manner, King believed that people could unite to combat oppression. However, in the months that followed, Kings powerful words were distributed to the public through civil rights committees, the press, and was even read in testimony before Congress (Letter from Birmingham Jail), taking the country by storm. Not only does he use pathos to humanize himself, but he also uses it to humanize his immediate audience, the eight clergymen. 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. Dr. Kings goal of this letter was to draw attention to the injustice of segregation, and to defend his tactics for achieving justice. " Any law that uplifts human personality is just." While pathos elicits an emotional response from the audience to make them more accepting of Kings ideas, repetition structures the speech and emphasizes key ideas for the audience to take away from listening. Parallelism/ Juxtaposition. By clicking Receive Essay, you agree to our, Essay Sample on The Effects of the Atomic Bomb, Essay Sample: The Development of the Braille System in Nineteenth-Century France, Constitution of The United StatesResearch Paper Example, Hippies In The 1960's (Free Essay Sample), Positive And Negative Impacts Of The Columbian Exchange, Essay Sample on Early River Civilizations. 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 Kings speech he. What are some examples of parallelism in letter from Birmingham jail? Martin Luther King Jr. twists the perspective of his audience -- Southern clergymen -- to create antithetic parallelism in Letter from Birmingham Jail. Thus, these essays are of lower quality than ones written by experts. Even now, it continues to make generations of people, not just Americans, to give up their racist beliefs and advocate social colorblindness. We allow people to think that it is okay to act unjustly towards some individuals. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. King gives a singular, eloquent voice to a massive, jumbled movement. The use of pathos is effective because it appeals to emotions and the issue of civil rights and civil disobedience. Letter From Birmingham Jail and use of Parallel Structure and Anaphora Kirtan Patel Chapter 25 Chapter 24 Parallel Structure- repetition of the same pattern of words or phrases within a sentence or passage to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. One example of Kings use of pathos appeals to the audiences emotions by showing Kings confidence in his endeavors. Martin Luther King responds to the subjectivity of law and the issue he paramounts by using precise and impactful rhetoric from inside of his jail cell. 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. 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. Fred Shuttlesworth, defied an injunction against protesting on Good Friday in 1963. In order to do this, Martin Luther King uses several techniques in paragraph thirteen and fourteen of his letter such as repetition, personification, as well as allusion, to support his claim that racial unity has taken too long. Although Kings reply was addressed to the Alabama clergyman, its target audience was the white people. Letter from Birmingham Jail; McAuley ELA I HON. This use of parallelism draws on the emotions of personal experiences to persuade that segregation is a problem in a myriad of ways. Who was he truly writing for? Magnifying the differences between two things and repeating statements with similar structure brings about emotion to realize the wrongness of the injustice of civil. Dr. King brought people up and gave them hope that one day everything will be taken care of and we 'll all be happy, he said that one day we 'll have peace and love among each other. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Whether this be by newspaper, flyers, or restated by another in speech, the spread of information is slower and potentially more controllable. 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. 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. Dr. Active Themes. Although the letter was addressed to the eight clergymen, the Letter from Birmingham Jail speaks to a national audience. Additionally, as he confesses to the clergy, King employs antithesis to create a rational structure that fosters logos: I agree I cant agree; small in quantity big in quality and shattered dreams hope (521 & 524-525). Dr. Repetition in "The Letter from a Birmingham Jail" Ethos Example "A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. Letter from Birmingham Jail is addressed to clergymen who had written an open letter criticizing the actions of Martin Luther King, Jr. during several protest in, Letter from Birmingham Jail is a letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. while he was in jail for participating in peaceful protest against segregation. He approaches his argument with logic and appealing to the people of Birminghams emotions. 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). On April 12, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and nearly 50 other protestors and civil rights leaders were arrested after leading a Good Friday demonstration as part of the . 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. The clergymen along with others are addressed in an assertive tone allowing them to fully understand why his actions are justified. Moreover, King juxtaposes contradictory statements to bolster the legitimacy of his argument against injustice -- in stark contrast to the racist beliefs held by the clergy -- which creates logos that he later capitalizes on to instill celerity within the audience.
parallelism in letter from birmingham jail