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. Correspondingly, King urges the clergy to reconsider the horse-and-buggy pace of their methods of action through his logos. 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. While in solitary confinement for nearly 8 days, reverend and social justice activist, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to the criticism he received for his non-violent protests. Read these passages aloud, and as you do so, feel their undeniable passion and power. The letter from the Birmingham jail of Martin Luther King, Jr.. 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. 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. Example: Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? 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. This use of parallel structure emphasizes how just and unjust laws can look deceptively similar. This letter is a prime example of Kings expertise in constructing persuasive rhetoric that appealed to the masses at large. 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). He wanted this letter to encourage and bring up a people that will start a revolution. King understood that if he gained support from the white American, the civil rights movement would reach its goals much faster. 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. 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. Lastly, King is constrained by his medium. By using it, you accept our. : "There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community." . 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. is undeniably effective at responding to the rhetorical situation at hand. To truly understand the effectiveness of this letter, one must rhetorically analyse the contents. In sum, all rhetoric has an external situation in which it is responding to. Both influential speeches rely heavily on rhetorical devices to convey their purpose. However King also deliberately wrote his letter for a national audience. His Letter from Birmingham Jail is a work that he wrote while incarcerated in the Birmingham City Jail in response to criticism from Alabama clergymen. The first to come to mind for most would be civil rights activism, as he was an instrumental figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. This use of parallelism draws on the emotions of personal experiences to persuade that segregation is a problem in a myriad of ways. 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. Explain why the examples fit your chosen reason. 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. 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. Both their speeches, I Have a Dream and The Ballot or the Bullet may have shared some common traits, but at the same time, differed greatly in various aspects. This essay was written by a fellow student. 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 . Laws should build up society to be better so that a law is not need to be enforced and people will still follow it. In order to properly convey his response to the questions proposed by the religious leaders of Birmingham, Dr. King uses it to draw comparisons which magnifies an idea, but it also commends one and disparages the other. 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. This wait has almost always meant never (King 2). Martin Luther in Birmingham Jail, The Atlantic. Dr. King repeats the same starting words when you have seen with different examples of injustices. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. The following well-known adage is an example of parallelism: "Give a . Your email address will not be published. With his respectful nature, humility, compassion, optimism, and determination, King responded to a group of white Alabama clergymen who had condemned the civil rights protests as extreme in their open letter, A Call for Unity. Although his letter was directed towards a small group of eight men, his words eventually reached the minds and hearts of the entire country. 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. Engels . Lastly, the exigence of a rhetorical piece is the external issue, situation, or event in which the rhetoric is responding to. That sentence magnifies the fact that good people doing nothing is the same as bad people purposely hindering civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr. was born to a middle class family and was well educated. But the strongest influential device King used was pathos. King has explained this through many examples of racial situations, factual and logical reasoning, and . Dr. King was considered the most prominent and persuasive man of The Civil Rights Movement. In the letter, King appeals for unity against racism in society, while he wants to fight for Human Rights, using ethos. 114, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40236733. As mentioned before, the social and political ideologies in America surrounding racial equity at this time, specifically in Birmingham, were extremely poor. Dr. King wrote 2 famous works, Dream and Birmingham and each had a different audience and purpose. Ultimately, King crafts antithetic parallelism to establish a logical structure that emphasizes logos in his argument: the timeliness of justice. This letter serves as a purpose to apply the need for love and brotherhood towards one another and avoid all the unjust laws. 808 certified writers . A seminal text of the Civil Rights Movement, King's, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, justifies the measures that brought about his arrest, and asseverates that the segregation laws against blacks in the south must be repealed. His masterful delivery of these metaphors and the frequent repetition makes the speech much like a poem or a part of a song. The Letter from Birmingham Jail addresses many problems, including the slow action occuring to stop racial discrimination. Ralph Abernathy (center) and the Rev. They fought for what they believed in but in vastly different ways. Analysing a rhetorical situation clarifies why a text was created, the purpose in which it was written, and why the author made specific choices while writing it. His writing is respectful and educated, if not naturally, to invalidate the use of his race against him by the largely prejudiced audience. 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). 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. What King discloses in his essay, Letter From Birmingham Jail, displays how the laws of segregation have affected African-Americans. King addressed these communities as the primary groups wherein racial segregation is continuously proliferated (the white American political and religious community) and points much of his arguments to and for his fellow black Americans in the society. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. SophAbs. 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. The law was written in 1962, but the powerful response pushed the courts to finalize their decision. 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. On the other hand, logical appeals helps to grasp the concept better and provides facts that prove it to be true. This website uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. 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 paragraph 15 of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", Martin Luther King uses parallel structure to compare just and unjust laws. It elucidated the exigence behind his letter as his presented rationale behind his arrest only made unjust laws appear more asinine and questionable by relation. 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. Since Kings arrest he had time to think deeply about the situation; therefore, he decides to reply back to the Alabama clergymen. Parallelism, in the way King uses it, connects what seems like small problems to a larger issue. " Any law that degrades human personality is unjust." Through the masterful use of analogies and undeniable examples of injustice, Kings disgruntled response to the clergies proves the justification for direct action taking place to establish equality for African Americans., Martin Luther Kings letter from Birmingham Jail was written to respond to white religious leaders who criticized his organizations actions against racial prejudice and injustice among black society in Birmingham. Who had criticize Martin Luther King because he was simply doing something that was right and violence was not needed for King. Required fields are marked *. 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. 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. 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. One of the challenges that he faced included being criticized because of what he believed in concerning the laws of segregation. MarkAHA. Just as well, King uses his aspirations to create ideas within the listeners. He is placing hope among the Negro community and assuring the white superiority that one day, they will share the same rights as their nation distinctively promised a hundred years earlier. Constraints bring light to the obstacles this rhetoric may face, whether it be social, political, economical, etc. When Dr. King first arrived in Birmingham, trouble occurred when he and fellow activists were . To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. for only $11.00 $9.35/page. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and, Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong leader in the Civil Rights movement, the son and grandson of a minister, and one heck of a letter writer. 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. 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. In sum, all rhetoric has an external situation in which it is responding to. During this letter, King then uses the time to unroot the occasion of nonviolent protests in BIrmingham and the disappointing leadership of the clergy. He wants the clergyman to realize that what they believe and think is wrong. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a civil rights activist that fought for the rights of African Americans in 1963. 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. 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. Magnifying the differences between two things and repeating statements with similar structure brings about emotion to realize the wrongness of the injustice of civil. Good uses of similes, metaphors, and imagery will act on the reader's senses creating a false sense of perception. Later in the letter, parallelism is used to contrast just laws and unjust laws. In paragraphs 33 to 44 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s response to A Call for Unity, a declaration by eight clergymen, Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), he expresses that despite his love for the church, he is disappointed with its lack of action regarding the Civil Rights Movement. In terms of legacies, Martin Luther King Jr. is an example of someone whose legacy has left an impact on a great many fields. Civil rights is an emotional subject for those who were affected by it, and MLK is proving his argument on civil disobedience. Martin Luther Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail addresses his fellow clergymen and others who critiqued him for his actions during this time. Found a perfect sample but need a unique one? He seeks to make them see the logic behind their protesting and make them feel ashamed and embarrassed by the way that they have been treating the African Americans. 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. 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. To get a high-quality original essay, click here. 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. 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. His goal is to make the clergymen help him fight racial equality. 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. 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. From the very beginning of it , King brings his crowd back to the origin of America when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, that freed all slaves and gave hope to the former slaves. He is a firm believer that Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere (262). King strategically persuades. Finally, King uses antithesis one more time at the end of his speech, when he writes when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands. The pairs he mentions are all the direct opposites of each other, yet he says that they will all join hands together and be friends. King uses parallelism to add balance and rhythm to his rhetoric. 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. Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail. The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 29 Jan. 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/letter-from-a-birmingham-jail/552461/. Martin Luther King Jr. twists the perspective of his audience -- Southern clergymen -- to create antithetic parallelism in Letter from Birmingham Jail. 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). He uses the rhetorical appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos numerous times throughout his essay to relay his argument about the laws of segregation and the African-Americans that are being cruelly treated.. He writes of his own problems that may apply to the daily struggles of the abused African, Parallelism In Speech From Birmingham Jail, Throughout the speech, another scheme King uses frequently is parallelism, the strategy of repeating similar clauses, several times. 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. Black Americans were forced to sit behind buses and kids were to use old books and uniforms of White Americans. Besides the use of pathos, King uses repetition to enhance the effectiveness of his argument. 1963, a letter was written to the clergy to alert them of what great injustices were taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. King does this in an effective and logical way. By addressing his respect for the clergymen, feigned or not, he is acknowledging the effectiveness of respect to those in power, whether they may or may not deserve it. 1, no. What are some examples of parallelism in letter from Birmingham jail? He begins strongly by explaining why he is in Birmingham in the first place, stating, So I am herebecause we were invited here. 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. Similarly, King uses pathos to trigger the emotional . This special lyrical and parallel structure helped get his main points across and allows a large audience to understand simple but powerful words (Layfield) . Parallelism/ Juxtaposition. 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. "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, describes a protest against his arrest for non-violent resistance to racism. Egypt) and titles (e.g. For example, to use parallelism in a sentence in which you list a series of elements, each element typically has the same form. King concludes with optimism about the future of the relationship between the currently segregated blacks and whites. He died in 1968. Dr. King goes on to say that laws that do not match what the Bible says are unjust. 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. Throughout the Letter from Birmingham Jail, ethos, pathos, and logos are masterfully applied by Martin Luther King. 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 clergymen along with others are addressed in an assertive tone allowing them to fully understand why his actions are justified. 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. 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 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. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., along with many other civil activist, began a campaign to change the laws and the social attitudes that caused such a disparity. 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. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and . Even now, it continues to make generations of people, not just Americans, to give up their racist beliefs and advocate social colorblindness. King gives a singular, eloquent voice to a massive, jumbled movement. We allow people to think that it is okay to act unjustly towards some individuals. Dr. King fought against segregation between Black Americans and White Americans. He uses a large number of rhetorical devices in his letter to reach his goal, including point of view, imagery, and rhetorical questions. 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. 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. 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). This period of quiet speculation over the law illuminates the national divide in opinion over the matter, one which King helped persuade positively. Although King was arrested for a nonviolent protest, he still found a way to justify his actions with the use of logos and pathos. Although Dr. Kings exploits are revered today, he had opponents that disagreed with the tactics he employed. These circumstances lead us to our next rhetorical focus: audience. IvyMoose is the largest stock of essay samples on lots of topics and for any discipline. In parallel structure, a writer repeats the same pattern of words or/and pattern of grammatical structure. We will write a custom Essay on King's Allusion in "Letter From Birmingham Jail" specifically for you. Analysing a rhetorical situation clarifies why a text was created, the purpose in which it was written, and why the author made specific choices while writing it. To summarize, Martin Luther Kings rhetoric is effective and ultimately changed the course of the Civil Rights movement for the better. 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.