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In this way, King juxtaposes his perspective with that of the clergy to demonstrate the depravity of his oppressors. It was important for King to address this audience as their support would ultimately make the largest difference in the movement. In response, King emphasized that justice is never timely, and the refusal to acknowledge equal rights was inhumane and regressive. The rhythm and frequent repetition are used to drive home his key points, stressing the importances of his goal. 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. In Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was this line, "We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right." King was the leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement as well as an activist for humanitarian causes. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail", King typically uses repetition in the form of anaphora - repeating the same word (s) at the beginning of consecutive clauses. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. 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. for only $11.00 $9.35/page. 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. This is the beginning of King's point-by-point rebuttal of the criticisms leveled against him. While in jail, King received a letter from eight Alabama clergyman explaining their concern and opposition to King and his non-violent actions. 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. The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. 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. 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. Correspondingly, King urges the clergy to reconsider the horse-and-buggy pace of their methods of action through his logos. In his letter King effectively manipulates language and tone to strengthen his argument against the complaints of the clergyman and successfully address the white people. 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. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. 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. By using it, you accept our. 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. However, they each have different ideas about freedom, and about what they want their audience to do. Parallelism, in the way King uses it, connects what seems like small problems to a larger issue. King specifically wrote to the white clergymen who had earlier addressed a letter to him as to why he was apprehended, in which they argued that his actions were untimely and unconstitutional. 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. As King disproves the arguments of the white clergymen, he utilizes antithesis to create logos; furthermore, he calls the reader to take action against injustice across the nation. He goes on to add; I am in Birmingham because injustice is here (King 1). This evidence, revealing MLKs use of pathos, was used to reach out to the emotional citizens who have either experienced or watched police brutality. He hopes that this letter will stop this injustice matter, and show what the African American desire. 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. Constraints bring light to the obstacles this rhetoric may face, whether it be social, political, economical, etc. The amount of original essays that we did for our clients, The amount of original essays that we did for our clients. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. 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. 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. Despite his support, Martin Luthers audience is one of the largest constraints in his rhetorical situation. 114, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40236733. Take for instance when the part of the letter when Dr. King talks about different men, both biblical, Martin Luther King Jr.s goal in Letter From Birmingham Jail is to convince the people of Birmingham that they should support civil disobedience and the eventual end to the segregation laws in Birmingham. To this day, Kings speech remains one of the most famous and influential speeches in. 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. Wiki User 2013-03-13 02:55:46 Study now See answer (1) Copy "One has not only legal but moral responsibility to obey just. Choose one type of reason and cite an example from these lines. Ultimately, King crafts antithetic parallelism to establish a logical structure that emphasizes logos in his argument: the timeliness of justice. 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. The biases of the audience go hand in hand with the rhetorical exigence of this letter, another large constraint in the effectiveness of his message. Civil rights is an emotional subject for those who were affected by it, and MLK is proving his argument on civil disobedience. 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. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. is undeniably effective at responding to the rhetorical situation at hand. Laws should build up society to be better so that a law is not need to be enforced and people will still follow it. King wants to bring to the readers realization the fact that laws are only to be followed when they are rightfully just and correct. Parallelism takes many forms in literature, such as anaphora, antithesis, asyndeton, epistrophe, etc. 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. Dr. King responded to criticism that was made by clergymen about calling Dr. King activities as "Unwise and Untimely". . Dr. King fought against segregation between Black Americans and White Americans. This use of parallel structure emphasizes how just and unjust laws can look deceptively similar. Throughout the text, King utilized the values of his audience to gain sympathy and later on support. That sentence magnifies the fact that good people doing nothing is the same as bad people purposely hindering civil rights. 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. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and . 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. However, the racial divide was legislated in 1877 with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which lasted until 1950. MLKs use of pathos and repetition is an effective way to persuade his audience about his position on civil disobedience. 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. 1, no. 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. 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. But immediately after Dr. King speaks out on how after 100 years Blacks still do not have the free will that is deserved. Lastly, King is constrained by his medium. One example of Kings use of pathos appeals to the audiences emotions by showing Kings confidence in his endeavors. However King also deliberately wrote his letter for a national audience. 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. Ralph Abernathy (center) and the Rev. , vol. Here are more examples of parallel structure within "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that I find especially powerful. Your email address will not be published. We believe that King states in the first sentence himself that he does not usually comment upon the criticism of his work. 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. When Dr. King first arrived in Birmingham, trouble occurred when he and fellow activists were . Bitzer, Lloyd F. The Rhetorical Situation.. " A just law is man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of the god. 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. 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). He displays a great amount of pathos, logos, and ethos in his speech. In terms of legacies, Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of someone whose legacy has left an impact on a great many fields. Constraints bring light to the obstacles this rhetoric may face, whether it be social, political, economical, etc. 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). King's main thesis in writing the Birmingham letter is that, racial segregation, or injustice to the black American society, is due to the continuous encouragement of the white American society, particularly the powerful communities in politics and religions. 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. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. The constraints surrounding Martin Luther Kings rhetorical situation include the audience, the rhetorical exigence of the situation he is responding to, Dr. King himself, and the medium, all of which are deeply connected. Within the article, the clergymen provide nine different critiques that asserted how Kings protest are invalid, uneffective, and simply unintelligent in the fight for obtaining justice and equity for individuals of color. Both works utilizes the persuasive techniques of pathos in Dream and logos in Birmingham. Both of the works had a powerful message that brought faith to many. 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. 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.