Response To Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

A Letter of Response
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. Martin Luther King brings attention to the reality of racial inequality in the 1960s. King writes this letter in response to clergymen addressing their apprehensions regarding the timing of the nonviolence demonstrations. The letter addressees specific arguments presented in the clergymen’s letter and his direct response. King’s goal in writing this letter is to convince the clergymen that his strategies are right and just. In this section, King rebuts the allegation made by the clergymen that his actions were untimely. In his counter argument, King uses repetition, metaphors, emotional appeals in order to persuade the audience to support his cause.
To begin, King points out that freedom is never voluntarily given from the oppressor. King states, for years he had heard the word “Wait!” and that it rings in every Negro with “piercing familiarity “(224). This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." use of the word "piercing" makes the familiarity more negative and forceful. Later in this

section King repeats the word “wait”. King attempts to convince the reader that the thing worse than hate is silence. It emphasizes that now is the time for nonviolence protest.
In addition, King uses a juxtaposition expressed through a metaphor in the second sentence of paragraph fourteen .He describes Asia and Africa moving with “jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence” while America is moving at a “horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter”(224).

This suggest the predictability and the justice of change. The use of words “jet-like speed” are used to describe the successful achievements of other countries and more negative terms like “pacing” and “creeping” are used to represent the American lack of success in gaining civil rights in the previous years. Also the expression associated to the gaining of a cup of coffee does not depict much of a triumph for the African Americans it is more of a sarcastic view of the little progress made with the movement. America is seen as a powerful country, but is having little success than other

countries.
Furthermore, King use of a periodic sentence touches the emotional appeals of the reader. King begins the sentence with more general details “twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society”(224) and later on move toward more personal details with “five-year-old son” and “wife and mother”(225). It gives the clergymen the perception of being oppress. The periodic sentence symbolizes a long difficult road that African American had to undergo leading to suffering and pain. This brings the audience to convey his action by what the reader feels as justify as right. He forces the reader to wait for the sentence to end, but when he does King’s ending statement becomes even more powerful “then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait” (225). By delaying the meaning of the sentence until the end, it has an effected of waiting just as he had to wait. Later on, King uses the word “you”(225). Using this term King transfer the pain and frustration to the reader so they can sense what is going on.
Throughout his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr, King use rhetorical strategies to convey his idea. He refutes the accusation made by the clergyman. By using these strategies King furthermore supports his cause.