Analysis of Letter From A Birmingham Jail

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In the year of 1963, Martin Luther King was imprisoned for peacefully marching in a parade as a nonviolent campaign against segregation. In Martin Luther King’s essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the paragraphs that have the most emotional appeal are, just as the critics say, paragraphs thirteen and fourteen. King tugs at the reader’s emotions in these specific paragraphs using very detailed examples about the difficult, heart-wrenching misfortunes that have happened to the African American society and what they had to endure on a daily basis in Birmingham by using metaphors, contrasts, alliteration, anaphora, and imagery. As taken from an excerpt of “MLK - Letter From A Birmingham Jail,” In paragraphs thirteen and fourteen of Letter from Birmingham Jail, King reaches emotional highs and lows with the pinnacle in paragraph fourteen.” With that being said, there are many reasons as to why these paragraphs have the most emotional appeal throughout the whole letter. Paragraph thirteen is one of the paragraphs that have the most emotional appeal. The first sentence of paragraph thirteen King says, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” By saying that, we know that the oppressors did not want to give the oppressed, who in this scenario was the African Americans, any freedom and they had to fight for their freedom. They had to demand their equality. King uses a very cognitive metaphor, “disease of segregation.” He directly refers to segregation as a disease, an infection. In paragraph thirteen, he also says “We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."” (Paragraph 13) King im... ... middle of paper ... ...ing the words “when you” emphasizing the legitimacy of the struggles he and the African American society faced. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King brings out the most emotional appeal through paragraphs thirteen and fourteen. Emotion floods through these two paragraphs showing how the African Americans have suffered a great deal in fighting for their equality. King tries to link to the reader by making them see through the eyes of an African American’s struggles so they can understand what is was doing to the African Americans and it gives an emotional appeal of sadness and affliction. Works Cited Mlk - Letter From A Birmingham Jail". Anti Essays. 11 Feb. 2014 http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/255064.html Direct Essays. “”Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr..” DirectEssays.com. DirectEssays.com, (December 31, 1969). Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

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