Metaphors In Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr., wrote the “Letter From Birmingham Jail” to enlighten the South that we are all created equal and should be treated as such. Though, King was making a broader statement not only for the south, the letter was directed at the clergymen. King uses three techniques to strengthen his argument against segregation, logic, biblical references, and extended vocabulary.

Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is filled with figurative language to influence his readers and explain his ideas. In the line, “Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be exposed,” King uses this amazing and interesting simile to catch his reader’s attention and help them understand what must be done. Also, King uses a beautiful metaphor when he speaking about

King uses a vast amount of emotion into his letter to the clergymen. He believes it will show people how much the colored people go through and hurt physically and emotionally. Colored people are humiliated everywhere they go, by Caucasian people or even the local grocery stores that have racial signs posted out front. There “came the opportunity to talk with leaders of

Dr. King was arrested in 1963 in the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans. “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written a few days after King’s arrest, defended Dr. King’s argument about the civil rights movement. He uses the pathos, ethos, and logos modes of persuasion and uses several rhetorical strategies such as metaphors, citing authority, parallelism, Rogerian strategy, and anaphora to defend his argument against racism and segregation.

Dr. King’s letter, Letter from the Birmingham Jail, talked about some things on why there shouldn’t be segregation. In his speech he used a rhetorical device such as when he made a Juxtaposition statement, “ Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This means that if you do something bad to one person, like telling a black person that she cannot sit here it is for whites only, will affect other black people even though the action was not towards them. This happened and affected every black person during the time of segregation.

Martin Luther King, Jr. writes from the Birmingham jail, where he is in prison for participating in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, his response to a statement issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. King writes passionately about the sufferings caused by segregation and moves his argument along using tone. His letter can be broken down, based on tone, into five main sections. These five sections, when combined, make up one of the most irrefutable arguments of all time. By skillfully utilizing diction to create tone, King conveys his message to the United States that segregation is not just a law, it was now a way of life.

King’s use of many rhetorical devices in these three paragraphs of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” solidify his conviction that segregation needs to be quelled immediately. Dr. King’s explanations justify the demonstrations and protests that he is participating in. Although this was a letter meant for clergymen, Dr. King simultaneously taught all of America a very important lesson: justice is a universal natural right, and when it is denied, it needs to be demanded. Racial equality is the form of justice in this case, as segregation was the culprit that divided society into two racial groups. Thus, Dr. King successfully advocated civil rights through this letter with powerful, clever

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was a powerful and eloquent letter that effectively argued the point that segregation is fundamentally unjust and should be fought with nonviolent protest. This letter, through describing the injustice taking place during the civil rights movement also provided some insight about Dr. King’s view of the government in the 1960s. Three mains themes present in Dr. King’s letter were religion, injustice, and racism.

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he argues that segregation is inhumane and is hurting the American society as a whole. All the time and energy that goes into segregation is slowing down the American society’s progress to succeed as a nation. He uses several rhetoric strategies that help adopt a tone that is both personal and logical. King was able to incorporate the rhetoric triangle into his letter and still managed to address his arguments. While using pathos, ethos, and logos, Martin Luther King Jr. was able use the clergymen’s accusations to successfully promote his own views and opinions instead.

Martin Luther King Jr. intentionally uses instances of allusions in order to strengthen his overall argument. In MLK’s letter titled “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he addresses the clergymen who have condemned his actions, and who labeled have him as an “extremist”. MLK addresses this by integrating a biblical allusion. For example, he states, “Was not Jesus an extremist in love? -- ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.’”. MLK references what the clergymen know best, the bible. This allows him to labels Jesus as an extremist since he had an extreme love for God and his creations. This essentially puts MLK in the same group as Jesus, removing the negative connotation of being an extremist. With

¨Wait...Just wait¨; For years the only thing negros heard when segregation laws were brought up is to just wait. Martin Luther King Jr. was one who was constantly told to wait, that things were changing, that people were doing everything they could to make changes, and that they didn’t need him meddling in their business. In response to all of these claims King wrote “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” In this letter King addresses many of the issues related to the pace at which segregation laws are changing and how he can no longer just sit by idly and watch. In the text King uses a number of different rhetorical strategies to get his points and ideas across. King uses pathos to appeal to his audiences emotion to get them to see things from the negro point of view, ethos that really build his credibility and get his audience to really listen to him, and logos to appeal to people's logic and compare what is happening with the progression of segregation laws in other countries compared to the United States. Although King is in the minority and has far less people on his side he deploys the use of all of these strategies so beautifully and with so much character that it is almost impossible to not side with him.

Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in Birmingham jail not because he committed a crime but because he took part in a non-violent demonstration. King received an invite to a nonviolent demonstration by a local church and was later jailed for his actions (King 1). While in jail, King reflected on the injustice in not only Birmingham, but the world as well. King addressed injustice as a universal wrong which can only be undone by people themselves and not by action forced by the government. He quickly announced that keeping the peace and obeying the law are not the same, the people ahead do not simply relinquish their role because of the selfishness of the human nature. Those who are oppressed will seek to leave injustice behind. Martin Luther

It is known to all that Martin Luther King is a famous person in America, who strongly goes against the racial discrimination all the time. Here, in this letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, it is easy for us to realize that racial discrimination appears and the non-violence action is still serious at that time. As a matter of fact, this letter is coming from the people in the Birmingham jail, stating their inner thoughts about the non-violence action, which just goes against the violence and the injustice in most cases. Although this essay response intends to provide the people in the Birmingham Jail of how to solve the serious problems of the

King brings up several emotions in his letter. King uses his children and how they ask him why the white men are so mean and why can’t they do what the other kids do, and how he would have to concoct an answer for his five year old son on why colored people are treated like trash. This is very sad on how a father has to explain to his kids why they can’t do anything and why they are called niggers instead of their first name, while the women aren’t even granted the respect of being called “Mrs.”. Imagine telling your child that they couldn’t do anything just because they were different. King also appeals to his beliefs in God, often quoting bible verses such as “I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus”(6) referring to how Jesus was whipped just like the black men were for standing up for his beliefs or his people.

King inspires those who support equal rights for all “ to rise up from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial injustice”.and stand up for what they believe. He insists that people who believe in the cause to speak up and join together as one voice, to demand equal rights that they deserve. In addition King uses Light and Dark imagery to make a statement on how people have been waiting a long time to receive equality and the same freedom as everyone else. He does this by discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, and how “ It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.