Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

King concludes with optimism about the future of the relationship between the currently segregated blacks and whites. He hopes that “[o]ne day the South will know that [the Negroes] were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream” (47), and that “the evil system of segregation” (46) will come to an end. He wants the South to realize the struggles that the Negroes have gone through to gain their freedom, and consider them as heroes who fought for their rights. King believes that eventually there will be freedom for all Americans, regardless of their race or socioeconomic status. He ends by softening his tone and closes with “[y]ours in the cause of [p]eace and [b]rotherhood” (49). This closing statement reiterates King’s central

mission, and urges the clergymen to join the cause of peace and brotherhood by supporting his campaign of civil disobedience.
13. “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius” (Emerson)
The purpose of a periodic sentence is to add emphasis and structural variety.

A periodic sentence is much stronger than its opposite, a loose sentence. In this example, Emerson employs a periodic sentence to emphasize that one must trust themselves.
14. “The high school student was drowning in a sea of homework from all of his AP and honors classes.”
The purpose of metaphor is to make writing more thought provoking and meaningful, as well as to provide emphasis on a subject. Metaphor also creates vivid imagery in the reader’s mind, as can be seen with the metaphor I have created. Upon reading it, the reader literally imagines a student drowning under a sea of papers and work, unable to break free and reach the surface.
15. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” - Neil Armstrong
The purpose of antithesis is to express an idea more emphatically, and create contrast between the two elements juxtaposed in the sentence. This illustrates the stark difference between the two elements, and emphasizes the ideas contained within the antithesis. In the famous quote from Neil Armstrong, Armstrong compares the small step he took with the giant leap that mankind just took by making contact with another celestial body for the first time in history. By comparing it with a small step, Armstrong further emphasizes the significance of this

achievement.
16. “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes/A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life” (Shakespeare)
Alliteration functions to reinforce meaning, unify sounds, supply a musical sound, and in some cases to echo the sense of the passage. In this case, from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, alliteration helps create a musical sound which was essential in plays. Also, the words that follow the alliteration of “f” and “l” are emphasized, and outline the ending of the tragedy.
17. “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.
Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children” (King 6).
The purpose of anaphora is to emphasize a point, and drive it home. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King employs anaphora by emphasizing that the time to take action against racial injustice is now. Anaphora is extremely effective in speech, because it engages the audience and helps the audience understand the message the speaker is conveying.
18. Martin Luther King is blatantly sarcastic in his opening paragraph. He mentions that many criticisms “cross [his] desk” (1). This is clearly sarcastic, because he is in a jail cell at the time and does not have the comforts of a desk. King also states that his “secretaries would be engaged in little else” (1) if they answered each of these criticisms. It is glaringly evident that King neither has access to secretaries nor a desk upon which to write this letter on. Furthermore, King refers to the clergymen as “men of genuine good will” (1), which he clearly does not believe based on the rest of his letter. He conveys his “disappoint[ment] with the white church and its leadership” (33) in his arguments, and it is evident King does not believe the members of the clergy are acting in good will. This opening paragraph is saturated with sarcasm, from the wild notions that King has secretaries and desks in jail to the sentiment that he believes the members of the clergy act for the benefit of all demographics.
19. King utilizes repetition heavily when he appeals to pathos and explains that the movement for justice cannot be postponed any longer. By using “when” (14) to link numerous examples of why justice cannot be denied any longer, King insures that the clergymen will understand the plight of the Negro. Furthermore, the repetition of “when” (14) is a call to action for the oppressed Negroes reading this letter, reminding them of the great injustice and hardship they face. King states that “when you are harried day by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro…when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodyness’ – then [the clergymen] will understand why [the Negroes] find it difficult to wait” (14). This statement strongly places the clergymen into the situation the Negroes face every day, and makes the idea of waiting for a time when justice is convenient to be absolutely absurd and illogical. King contends that the injustice and the struggles that segregation brings can no longer be tolerated by the African American society, and argues that their “legitimate and unavoidable impatience” (14) is clearly warranted.
20.

The most important literary text to have in order to understand the ideas King presents is the original statement of concern and caution issued by the eight white clergymen. Martin Luther King’s letter is a response to that statement, and it is imperative to have access to it in order to understand which points King is countering and why he is doing so. Without this text, a reader would not know who is being referenced when King references “men of genuine good will” (1). In addition, context regarding the Bible would also be beneficial, since King alludes to it repeatedly throughout his letter. King justifies civil disobedience by comparing it to the “refusal of Shardach, Meshach, and Abednego” (21), which was described in the Book of Daniel. A key historical context that would be valuable to the reader is World War II. King employs the policies of Nazi Germany and Hitler to further persuade his reader that unjust laws should not be followed. Without knowledge that Hitler was a vicious dictator who ruthlessly segregated against Jews, a reader would not be able to fully understand the sarcasm that King expresses when he states that “everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’” (22). It would also be very beneficial if the reader had context on the ideas of Jon Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and others who King references in his letter in order to better understand his

proposals.
King chose to write a letter in lieu of a spoken speech at a later date simply because the Negro community could no longer tolerate the injustices that the “evil system of segregation” (46) brought upon them. He could not wait until a later date to orate a speech, because for every moment he waited, more and more Negroes were being lynched, abused, and segregated. There was also growing tension between the Negroes and the white moderates; the Negroes were “no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair” (14). Instead, they wanted to fight back and reclaim their constitutional and God-given rights. At the time of writing, the “disease of segregation” (32) had caused considerable unrest in Birmingham, Alabama, and King could not afford to wait until he was released from jail to orate a speech. Instead, he was forced to write a letter to respond to immediate criticism from the clergymen and diffuse his ideas to the general public.