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A letter from a Birmingham jail analysis
Interpreting Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Interpreting Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
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In Martin Luther King Junior’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he utilizes logos and rhetorical questions to prove his argument and render the opposing side’s stance illogical. King uses logos consistently throughout his address to create an irrefutable stance. In one instance, King states, “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation” (). When asked about why he had turned to direct action over peaceful negotiation, King uses logic to explain how direct action and negotiation are not mutually exclusive. It is hard to argue against basic and universal statements such as that, and King continues to use them throughout his letter to outline his stance.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham, for having a protest without a proper permit. On the exact day King was arrested, eight clergymen from Alabama wrote a letter called “A Call for Unity.” The letter called for termination of civil activities and demonstrations and designated King an “outsider” and saying that outsiders were the problems in Birmingham and not the blacks that are from there. On April 16 King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which was his responds to his fellow clergymen. He wrote the letter as a means to convince the clergymen and the white moderate that the nonviolent demonstrations that had got him arrested, were a necessity and to enlighten them on why the segregation laws in the southern states needed to be changed. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King uses logos, pathos, and ethos to persuade the clergymen and convince them in assisting him in putting an end to segregation laws of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama.
To establish ethos, arguments must attain three things: credibility, authority, and unselfish motives. Together, Martin Luther King has an excellent display of ethos in his letter, “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”. King “came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause … Struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice” (1963) His dream of equality is not selfish at all. He goes on to explain his experience being black, being segregated and treated badly as if his people was an exile in their own land. Containing personal experiences and knowing this topic very well, King has an authority to speak. He affirms his credibility by showing he has done his homework by referencing to hard evidence like Jesus Christ, Thomas Jefferson, John Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther to support his own cause. Once
The “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” is a text directed to all of America in 1963, written by Martin Luther King Jr., during his stay in one of the of Birmingham’s prisons. His intention of writing an open letter was to tell the world the injustice “the white people” had done not only to him, but to all Afro-Americans. The main stimulus was a statement made by a Clergymen naming the actions and the activities of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as unwise and untimely. However, the purpose of this letter is to show that those actions are totally wise and timely.
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. During this letter, King then uses the time to unroot the occasion of nonviolent protests in BIrmingham and the disappointing leadership of the clergy. King relies heavily on the two rhetorical devices, juxtaposition and parallelism, to bolster his argument and aid to make his reasoning more compelling.
Martin Luther King Jr. uses the rhetorical appeal of Logos to provide a sense of logic and reason within his letter. When he is accused of resorting to demonstrations rather than attempting negotiations King provides his four step plan to a successful nonviolent campaign, listing direct action as the final step and negotiations as the second. This point peacefully refutes the clergymen’s accusations and does not provoke a new argument. King also uses facts to prove a point such as, “There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than and city in the nation.” (King, ¶-5) This quotation validates King’s reasoning to be in Birmingham for demonstrations and not just negotiation.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail Is an individual morally justified in breaking a law? The answer to this question is yes,. There are several reasons that have made me believe that it is morally justifiable in breaking the law; however, the most convincing comes from Dr. Martin Luther King in his letter from the Birmingham Jail. " We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." (Classic Arguments 668 -.
In 1963, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South, so civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. brought his campaign of nonviolent resistance to Birmingham. After leading a demonstration on April 12, 1963, King was arrested for violating demonstration ordinances. Shortly after, eight white clergymen in Birmingham sent out a public statement claiming that although they support desegregation, they advise against anymore protests advocated by King, stating that the “demonstrations are unwise and untimely” (Carpenter et al). While in jail, King took an opportunity to continue his campaign by responding to these eight white clergymen. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King uses religious and philosophical allusions to effectively convey his intellect and credibility to his audience: the clergymen and his followers.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letters From Birmingham Jail” while he was in jail for going against the law enforcements and holding meetings, marches, and sit-ins. MLK states in the beginning of his letter how he is like the Apostle Paul from the bible. “Just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ… I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom…”(King) MLK knew he was suppose to make a change and he was not going to let anyone stand in his way.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is known to be a civil rights activist, humanitarian, a father, and a clergyman. He is well known for fighting for the equal rights of colored people and ending discrimination. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is an important part of history that showed King’s opinion of a letter that he happened to read in the newspaper written by a group of clergyman. In this letter, the group of clergyman report that colored people, also known as black people, are being violent towards Birmingham City. Also, the clergymen believed the time that will allow segregation to be diminished was not happening anytime soon because it is not convenient. King refuted the clergymen’s argument in a variety of ways using tactics of argumentation and persuasion like appeal to emotion through real life examples, appeal to logic, and even articulating certain phrases through metaphors and word choice. Many of these different tactics of argumentation and persuasion made his letter very effective and is now seen as a great piece that is looked upon highly today.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his famous “A Letter from the Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963 while he was imprisoned in the Birmingham Jail for being involved in nonviolent protests against segregation. The letter is directed at eight white clergymen from Alabama who were very cynical and critical towards African Americans in one of their statements. Throughout the letter, King maintains an understanding yet persistent tone by arguing the points of the clergymen and providing answers to any counterarguments they may have. In the letter, King outlines the goals of his movement and says that he will fight racial inequality wherever it may be. Dr. King uses the appeal three main rhetorical devices – ethos, logos, and pathos – in order to firmly, yet politely, argue the clergymen on the injustices spoken of in their statement.
In the letter, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr, and the speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” by Malcolm X, the authors discuss their very different viewpoints on what form of freedom would it take to accomplished their goal. While King believes that peaceful approaches would allow the black community to achieve equality with the white Americans, Malcolm X thinks achieving equality with white Americans is nearly impossible; therefore, he preaches a separatist doctrine. Although King and X are both fighting for the black community’s rights and their integration into the nation’s system, their approaches differ significantly. King and X differ in three main areas: their ultimate goals, the strategies to accomplish those goals, and their use of rhetoric.
In Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," his thoughts and ideas are directly stated, well expressed, explained, and illustrated. King's style of writing gives the reader a clear glimpse into the world with which he struggled and allows his letter to be powerfully effective.
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
In Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail, pathos, ethos, and logos are vividly expressed throughout it. All three rhetorical devices are vital to the meaning of the letter; the most influential being pathos. MLK takes advantage of the human body’s strong response to emotion. It is illustrated in his appeal to empathy, exercised mainly through gruesome depictions; his call for action to his peers, as shown when he expresses his disappointment in them as they preserve order over justice; and his strategic use of pathos as a supporting effort for both ethos and logos arguments.
In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail) written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the three artistic appeals of Aristotle are plainly apparent, especially logos. Dr. King repeatedly appeals to logos (Ruszkiewicz) throughout the entire piece; particularly when he says he was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist then gradually gained a matter of satisfaction from the label. He is very impassioned in his language and tone in this part of the letter, yet still makes a strong argument for logic. Despite the overwhelming emotional and personal investment involved Dr. King still allows logic to prevail thus lending him a huge amount of credibility. As a member of the community being persecuted in this case, he might have had trouble remaining objective but clearly he doesn’t let his own pathos take center stage. All in all the use of logic and concise reasoning make a strong argument for the effectiveness of the letter in general.