“Letters from Birmingham Jail.”
Cindy Peralta
AP English & Composition
October 17, 2014
In the article “Letters from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was a participant in a non-violent demonstration against segregation, subjects a response to a public settlement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. The occasion of the letter was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s sentence to jail due to a non-violent participation in racial segregation. The letter was for people who were against him which were the eight white religious leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted the …show more content…
letter to also let people realize how the black race was being treated and to let people know about non-violent protests. Throughout the letter Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses three rhetorical strategies which are imagery, antithesis and anaphora. He uses both in order to persuade the eight white religious leaders to treat the black race better than they are. Throughout the letter Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. uses imagery as a rhetorical strategy. With the use of imagery Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his response to the eight white religious leaders with much detail. He states “…When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you speak to your six-year old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that fun town is closed to colored children…”. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses how young children are also being affected due to segregation, in which I can see in my mind because if that were me as a child I know that I would be devastated. In this perspective of the imagery that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses I can agree on his …show more content…
statement. To add on, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses another rhetorical strategy to point his claim is anaphora. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses anaphora in his letter he makes the words ‘when you have seen’ more outstanding, where he wants us to see the segregation that occurred. “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;…”. In this part of his letter Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. starts off with when you have seen which indicates that segregation wasn’t kept low rather it was very noticeable and no one did anything to stop it. Furthermore, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. not only uses those two rhetorical strategies, he also uses antithesis. While he makes his point thru, he also adds on other comparisons that weren’t right. “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was 'legal' and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was 'illegal'.” Dr. Martin Luther king also sees that the fight for freedom was illegal. But when there are people mistreating or causing harm to another it is legal. This is related to segregation because it was legal and so was the horrifying things Hitler did, also the fight for freedom is illegal in both cases. The use of antithesis strongly improves Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter because it makes us see the right from the
wrong. To conclude, in the letter “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the use of rhetorical strategies helped the letter become more convincing to agree with. In my opinion I highly agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because I can see and feel what segregation had felt like and I think it was wrong for him to be sentenced to jail because it was an unfair reason.