Both influential speeches rely heavily on rhetorical devices to convey their purpose. 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. 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. Civil rights leader and social activist Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a world renown correspondence, Letter From Birmingham Jail, in April of 1963, during a time when segregation was at its peak in the South. was initially the eight clergymen of Birmingham, all white and in positions of religious leadership. 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. Parallelism In Letters From Birmingham Jail, 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. While in his cell, he composed the famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. This comes to endanger our entire society. MLK uses both ways to gain the attention and agreement of the audience but, he uses pathos not just more, but in a more relatable way in order to appeal to his audience. He wrote the letter in response to criticisms made by white clergymen. His audience ranged between those who his message empowered, a radical positive force, and those who disagreed, made up of southern states, extremist groups, and the majority of American citizens stuck in their racial prejudices. King establishes his position supported by historical and biblical allusions, counterarguments, and the use of rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos. To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. Throughout the Letter from Birmingham Jail, ethos, pathos, and logos are masterfully applied by Martin Luther King. 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. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. 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). Letter from Birmingham Jail. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, 29 May 2019, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/letter-birmingham-jail. 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. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. An Unjust Law Is No Law At All: Excerpts from "Letter from Birmingham Jail" January 18, 2021 By The Editors In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're sharing excerpts from King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," one of the most important moral treatises of the twentieth century. 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. 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. "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Analysis. If your first two elements are verbs, the third element is usually a verb, too. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. 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. Back then, people were ready to oppose unjust laws that were causing inequality and preventing progress. We will write a custom Essay on King's Allusion in "Letter From Birmingham Jail" specifically for you. 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. King goes on to explain how this right has not been kept, making it appear to be similar to a laid-back rule. Lines 14-43: King provides three different types of reasons in his letter to justify his presence in Birmingham: Organizational reasons, religious or historical reasons, and moral reasons. 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. 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). " Any law that degrades human personality is unjust." Black Americans were forced to sit behind buses and kids were to use old books and uniforms of White Americans. Dr. King goes on to say that laws that do not match what the Bible says are unjust. Yet his most important method of reaching his audience, and conveying his enduring message of equality and freedom for the whole nation was his appeal to pathos. He wants the clergyman to realize that what they believe and think is wrong. 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 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. Your email address will not be published. Who was he truly writing for? This helps King focus on the differences between them. 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. Letter from a Birmingham Jail: The Rhetorical Analysis At the peak of the Civil War Movement in America on April 12th, 1963, eight Alabama . Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. you can use them for inspiration and simplify your student life. You may use it as a guide or sample for writing your own . Any subject. Here are more examples of parallel structure within "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that I find especially powerful. King organized various non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in his arrest. This evidence, revealing MLKs use of pathos, was used to reach out to the emotional citizens who have either experienced or watched police brutality. Repetitions help the writer give structure to his arguments and highlight important aspects. What are some examples of parallelism in letter from Birmingham jail? 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. Several clergy who negatively critiqued Kings approach of seeking justice, wrote A Call for Unity, arguing that his protests were senseless and improper. Throughout the text, King utilized the values of his audience to gain sympathy and later on support. King is saying that if we allow injustice to happen in some places, we risk it happening to everyone. 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. Dr. King often used repetition and parallel construction to great emotional effect when he spoke. From this revelation, the audience will also realize that it is no fault of the Negro that they have been left behind in contrast, modern society have been dragging them back through racism. He goes on to add; I am in Birmingham because injustice is here (King 1). 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 died in 1968. 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 writes how the white church is often disappointed in the African Americans lack of patience and how they are quick to be willing to break laws. 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. 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. Overall, King is saying that we need to fight against injustice anywhere we see it,, In April of 1963, while incarcerated in Birmingham City jail, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an influential letter defending his anti-segregation protests. These encompass his exigence, at its most simple and precise, and validify the importance behind transforming the country in a positive way. Bitzer, Lloyd F. The Rhetorical Situation.. Therefore, these other literary devices and figures of speech are specific types of parallelism.. One of the most well-known examples of . King does this in an effective and logical way. . On the other hand, logical appeals helps to grasp the concept better and provides facts that prove it to be true. The following well-known adage is an example of parallelism: "Give a . He uses a large number of rhetorical devices in his letter to reach his goal, including point of view, imagery, and rhetorical questions. 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. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here (King 1), after describing his involvement in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as president. Prior to the mid 20th century, social injustice, by means of the Jim Crow laws, gave way to a disparity in the treatment of minorities, especially African Americans, when compared to Caucasians. However, this constraint did not ultimately halt the spread of Kings message nation-wide, as it became a persuasive landmark of the civil rights movement, likely due to both his impactful position and persuasive use of rhetoric. Martin Luther King Jr. twists the perspective of his audience -- Southern clergymen -- to create antithetic parallelism in Letter from Birmingham Jail. King through this letter tries to express his, "Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail, which was written in April 16, 1963, is a passionate letter that addresses and responds to the issue and criticism that a group of white clergymen had thrown at him and his pro- black American organization about his and his organization's non- violent demonstrative actions against racial prejudice and injustice among black Americans in Birmingham. This wait has almost always meant never (King 2). He points out the irony of America because Black Americans were still not truly free. In his letter he uses examples like when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters. and when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and gathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim to make his audience envision and feel what many negroes felt while watching their families put up with this mistreatment. Who was he truly writing for? To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. In paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses parallel structure to compare just and unjust laws. Using emotional appeals captures an audience's attention and makes them think about what the narrator is saying. In Letter From Birmingham Jail, 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. This use of parallelism draws on the emotions of personal experiences to persuade that segregation is a problem in a myriad of ways. Order original paper now and save your time! the exigence is the continued condemnation, segregation, and prejudice afflicted against African Americans since the emancipation of the slaves in 1863. 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. 808 certified writers . Found a perfect sample but need a unique one? Read these passages aloud, and as you do so, feel their undeniable passion and power. This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. During a civil resistance campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King was arrested. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. In paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses. 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. You can order a custom paper by our expert writers. The main argument Dr. King is making in the letter is the protest being done in Birmingham is "wise" and most important "timely". All In sum, all rhetoric has an external situation in which it is responding to. Dr. King wrote 2 famous works, Dream and Birmingham and each had a different audience and purpose. This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. When teaching speeches and letters, it's helpful to refresh or introduce students to literary elements that enhance rhetorical strategies. 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. Although the letter was addressed to the eight clergymen, the Letter from Birmingham Jail speaks to a national audience. Besides the use of pathos, King uses repetition to enhance the effectiveness of his argument. Your email address will not be published. How does this comparison appropriately justify. 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). In A Letter From A Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King Jr defends his use of nonviolent protest in order to accomplish racial equality. 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). similes, metaphors, and imagery are all used to make the letter more appealing to the audiences they make the letter more descriptive while making you focus on one issue at a time. 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. King intended for the entire nation to read it and react to it. Here, King offers disparate hypotheticals to illustrate the necessity for brevity in his acts. Martin Luther utilizes powerful rhetoric to define his exigence. During the era of the civil rights movements in the 60s, among the segregation, racism, and injustice against the blacks, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial to deliver one of the greatest public speeches for freedom in that decade. Parallelism, in the way King uses it, connects what seems like small problems to a larger issue. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. 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). Abused and scorned through we may be, our destiny is tied with the destiny of America. (Page 9) The sureness King presents in this quote both instills hope in the reader and allows them to relate to Kings passion. The letter from the Birmingham jail of Martin Luther King, Jr.. His Letter from Birmingham Jail was the match. " A just law is man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of the god. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and He had a great impact on race relations in the U.S. and he made a great impact on many lives. King uses tone, literal and figurative language to establish structure and language in his letter. Despite his support, Martin Luthers audience is one of the largest constraints in his rhetorical situation. 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. In the "Letter from Birmingham Jail", written by Martin Luther King Jr., King delivers a well structured response to eight clergymen who had accused him of misuse of the law. Civil rights is an emotional subject for those who were affected by it, and MLK is proving his argument on civil disobedience. Active Themes. 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). 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. 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. King has explained this through many examples of racial situations, factual and logical reasoning, and . He shows logos by giving a sense of hope to the people that better things will come in time. The letter was written April third, 1963, it was published for the public in June of the same year, a slower spread than a nationwide address on television or radio. 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. In Kings letter, he states, We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Funny thing is he had lots of time to think about and write this letter. 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. He uses parallelism by repeating I had hoped to ironically accuse his attackers. In the same manner, King believed that people could unite to combat oppression. He also wants the readers to realize that negroes are not to be mistreated and that the mistreatment of negroes could have severe implications as in a violent protest against the laws made by the court. While this fight had been raging for nearly 10 years, the release in 1963 was shortly followed by the Civil Rights Act in 1964. 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. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. He ended up creating a very persuasive letter, one that effectively uses ethos in establishing his character, logos in providing reason and logic, and pathos in reaching human emotions. 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. 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 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. Being nearly symbolic, King being held prisoner in Birmingham, the most polar racial arena of the United States, made his rhetoric more effective. In this example, King implements logos to create a cohesive argument that appeals to the rational side of his audience: Southern clergymen. Similarly, King uses pathos to trigger the emotional . Even now, it continues to make generations of people, not just Americans, to give up their racist beliefs and advocate social colorblindness. Parallelism/ Juxtaposition. He deliberately tries to make the audience feel as if racial segregation is both wrong and against basic morals. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. Consequently, King fabricates logos as he urges African-Americans to demand justice from their oppressors, an issue that directly affects everyone across the nation: not just those in specific areas. 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. Lastly, King is constrained by his medium. Dr. King repeats the same starting words when you have seen with different examples of injustices. King strategically persuades. Since Kings arrest he had time to think deeply about the situation; therefore, he decides to reply back to the Alabama clergymen. 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. 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. 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. There isn't quite as much of that in "Letter From Birmingham Jail," but it still pops up a couple of times. In. 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. : "There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community." . Martin Luther King Jr. was an American baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in 1954. King's letter from Birmingham Jail addresses the American society, particularly the political and religious community of the American society. '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. Throughout the letter critics are disproved through Kings effective use of diction and selection of detail.