Rhetorical Analysis Of A Letter From Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King’s inspiration for writing his, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was mainly to appeal to an undeniable injustice that occurred during his time. His letter was in response tos eight white clergymen, who objected to King protesting in Birmingham. Dr. King effectively crafted his counterargument after analyzing the clergymen’s unjust proposals and then he was able to present his rebuttal. Dr. King effectively formed his counterargument by first directly addressing his audience, the clergymen and then using logos, pathos and egos to present his own perspective on his opponent’s statements.

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

Thoreau and King use rhetorical devices repeatedly throughout their writings to help them convey their messages to their audience. A rhetorical device that is utilized most in these writings are three emotional appeals: pathos, logos, and ethos. In King’s letter, his first two paragraphs contain ethos. He is building his credibility as to why he is responding to the clergymen. He states some of the groups he is a part of and has affiliated with while holding his position as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The group has organizational ties in many of the southern

Right from the start, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wants to make sure that the reader knows that he can be relied on using the rhetorical appeal of ethos.  Defined as an appeal to authority or character of the speaker (Alfano O’Brien 51), ethos was a great ally to King in his letter.  He starts by showing that African Americans see him as a respected leader.  He tells of how he currently serves as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (King 1).  He then says that this organization, in charge of many other organizations, can be found all throughout the southern states.  King, not only a great leader in advocating for civil rights, but also achieving the title of “Doctor” showing his highly educated background (New York Times 1).  He served as the president of his class at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania despite his race (New York Times 1).  He went on to Boston University and earned his Ph.D. (New York Times 1).  Not only did King achieve the title of Doctor, but also Reverend. He could relate better and became more respected as a reverend to those in his audience. The more than qualified Dr. King went on to address and to persuade his

In his letter, King uses all three modes of persuasion- ethos, logos, and pathos. King addresses all of the clergymen's concerns methodically and answers them both with clear, indisputable facts and with emotional appeals to allow the reader a closer and honest view of a colored person's life in the South at the time. King uses ethos to establish his character, but also to reassure the reader of his intentions. In this letter King keeps his tone unemotional and informative allowing logic to prevail. Throughout his letter King is successful using metaphors and imagery to express ideas or emotions that would otherwise be difficult for the reader to grasp.

Writing from the heart, expressing feelings, having a strong emotional impact on ones audience, using an appeal to emotion and logic, using facts and presenting arguments in a professional way, to the enlightenment of one's viewers; Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail; consists of three Rhetorical Strategies throughout his letter that is known and taught around the world as ETHOS, PATHOS and LOGOS. An appeal to ethics, a means of convincing someone of the character or credibility of the persuader (ethos), an appeal to emotion, and a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response (Pathos), and finally, an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason (Logos); these three Rhetorical Strategies are used countless times throughout Martin Luther King’s Letter for Birmingham Jail.

The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written precisely on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. the letter was written to his co-ministers in reaction to their disapproval about his deeds in Birmingham. This letter was written when there was discrimination in the South. The forcefulness and communal prejudice have created unnecessary heartache and depression among black people, with the way things are going if there is no solution to the problems things might get out of hands. The writer stresses that if they stop the protest there will not be a chance for change, acceptability, and understandings of the blacks to get the right they deserve. In addition, it will be difficult to solve the socioeconomic and human problems rising among the blacks and the whites. In order to defend his wish for racial justice and equality, the writer uses an ethical appeal, logical appeal, and pathetic appeal to earn his audience approval.

In King’s Birmingham letter where he wrote from jail, he uses all three rhetorical strategies. He also uses pathos, logos, and ethos in his infamous “I Have a Dream Speech” that is known worldwide and has had a long impact on this nation. The use of these three rhetorics are what connect to the audience, his establishment of credibility, the emotional use of incidents the black race felt and his statistical information really prove to grab the attention of those reading or listening and have the impact affect them.

While Martin Luther King Jr. was locked up in a jail he received a letter from eight clergymen. They reached out to King in a letter that is called “A Call for Unity.” In this letter, they are telling king that people needed to stand up and try to make a change by peaceful protesting to get their point across (“A Call for Unity”). King then replies to their letter with a letter of his own which is known as “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” King states that he gets a lot of letters and doesn’t reply to them but he thought that the clergymen meant good so he would try to answer their questions to the best of his ability (King). Also in the letter, he focuses on what is going on in Birmingham at the time and tells about himself and how he oversaw a lot of planning comities (King). In the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” King uses three main ways to connect with the audience of the letter and those are ethos, pathos, and logos.

How important was the changing of segregation laws? We’ll for most of the white community back then it wasn’t. King was a very educated man, he lead protest, wrote very many speeches and was a known black lives activist. King's use of rhetorical strategies was huge. In his letter from Birmingham Jail, King uses many rhetorical strategies to stress the urgency of changing segregation laws.

Throughout his letter, King manages to stay committed to his overall goal of supporting a land of equality, and is motivated by the injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes this letter to a group of white clergyman who criticize his doings in Birmingham. King understands who his intended audience is and keeps in mind their opposing view. He refers to his critics as “fellow clergymen” as a way to point at the fact that he is one of them. King’s tone in the opening paragraph is calm and he addresses his audience by treating them as equals in

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” takes place in a solitary confinement cell inside of Birmingham, Alabama. Majority of the letter were carried out on strips of paper by Dr. King attorney. They were using irregular jailhouse paper tissue. Dr. King was having a peaceful parade march when being held by law enforcement for not having a parade permit.

In Martin Luther King Jr’s letter, Letter from Birmingham Jail, he uses the rhetorical strategy of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Martin Luther King Jr. uses Ethos and Logos when he begins with the “My Dear Fellow Clergymen” this is important because he lets the Clergymen know that there is nothing separating them that they are human beings and equal. Dr. King then progresses and says that he has the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which makes a statement that reveals he is a citizen of America. Martin Luther King Jr. then stated that they, the African Americans, have waited for more than 340 years for their constitutional and God-given rights. This statement means that their God-given rights are part of the constitution, therefore, means that everyone should be included thus means that even African Americans should have the same rights and equality and the white people. Logos comes in when he says that they have waited more than 340 years. Logically speaking there was slavery beforehand but now there isn’t slavery but segregation. Slavery and segregation have something in common which is the African American get racial injustice and have no rights. The 8th Amendment says the punishments should be fair and cannot be cruel. This Amendment was broken when colored people were doing a pacifist protest but ended in gore when the white men sprayed fire hose to them and let dogs chew on them like if they were a toy. Dr. King tried to catch

It seems incredible to believe that one man was able to change a society where injustice was predominating and most people thought that it was worthless to fight against it. However, a wise man fought against the segregation that was occurring in Alabama, Georgia on 1962, and he fought for equal human civil right for colored people. This man was Martin Luther King Jr., an ordained minister with a doctorate in theology from Boston University, who claimed to have a dream of a society that is just for everybody regardless of his or her skin color. It was so much injustice happening in Alabama on 1962 that King wanted to help his brothers and sisters in a peaceful way; in fact, as King claims on “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King 4). In other words, King was aiming for justice in every part of the planet and even when he did not change the whole world, he provided better human civil right for colored people in Alabama. We can notice how King could persuade a lot of people by the way he uses pathos, logos, and ethos on his writing of “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Furthermore, King was very specific when it comes to giving very detail examples of injustice and such details provide his writing, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” with a way of persuading readers even more. The simple fact that King was able to make people to connect with his writings in a deeper sense was such a marvelous quality that he had,

Over the course of our American history we have seen the African American community fight for civil liberties since the formation of our country till the height of this fight in the 1960s, also known as the Civil Rights Era. Among one of the most belittling policies included segregation which kept blacks and whites separated. This brings us to Birmingham Alabama 1963, one of the most segregated cities in all of America. During this time the Southern Christian Leadership Conference staged many non-violent protests which were led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, a prominent leader during the Civil Rights Era. During these protest King was one of many arrested. As a prominent and popular figure King faced much criticism from many of the influential white clergymen in the south. King responded back with his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” a great and moving piece of literature in American history, in which he used rhetorical appeals to back his point by point rebuttal to his criticism, as well to back his counter critiques he would make back.