Dr._Martin_Luther_King's_Literary_Devices

Dr. King's Literary Devices Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is revered by many as the greatest leader for the Civil Rights Movement. His undying passion for the abomination of segregation made him a human rights icon that will be remembered throughout history. King spent countless hours fighting for equal rights and was known for his calm but steadfast demeanor. In the heat of the Civil Rights Movement, King traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to organize one of his patented peaceful protests. King was called upon by leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to lead Birmingham citizens in a peaceful march for equality but, was arrested during the protest. While in a Birmingham jail, King was able to write a letter to his fellow clergymen, fittingly titled “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. uses a strong ethos in order to convince his fellow clergymen to act alongside him for the progression of the Civil Rights Movement. The letter begins with King explaining that he is writing to the clergymen from within the walls of the Birmingham prison. King begins with this admission in order to immediately create a sense of sympathy for himself in the other audience minds. Obviously as clergymen, much of King's audience had probably never been in jail before. This would effectively strike an interest with his audience for this reason. Thus, King has all ready established a strong ethos only one or two sentences into his letter. The next way in which King uses the appeal to emotion when speaking with his fellow clergymen is when he speaks of the wicked racism occurring in Birmingham. King says, “Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham.” The clergymen that King is addressing in his letter call the Birmingham area home and clearly would have been taken aback by King's accusation about their hometown. King uses this very descriptive anecdote about the treatment of Negroes in order to humble the clergymen and open their eyes to the blatant evil that Negroes were being forced to put up with on a day to day basis. King goes on to address the clergymen who have acknowledged his purpose but have turned a blind-eye towards it. These clergymen often told King that he was “fighting a good fight” but they would not take a stand and back his fight. King gives these men numerous examples of the injustices that Negroes are faced with everyday. King says, “[We] 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.” This is a perfect example of King's use of eloquent language in order to establish a more credible ethos in the letter. King goes on in this paragraph to talk about the injustices children were stricken with daily. King saw, “Tears welling up in [your daughter's] eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people.” Many of these clergymen had children of their own and this created an unbelievable common ground. Reading these examples must have figuratively brought the clergymen to their knees. These examples, by anyones standards, would be seen as completely abhorrent and unjust. The daily talk of segregation was easily dismissed but when faced with concrete examples like this, the clergymen where almost forced to act. Overall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is seen as one of the greatest American leaders and as a huge component in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement. Throughout his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” King uses a variety of descriptive language and harsh examples of racism in order to appeal to the emotion of the clergymen. This proved to be very effective as the clergymen whom he was writing to were forced to deal with this issue promptly. Work Cited King, Martin Luther. “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” African Studies Center – University of Pennsylvania. 21 Jan. 2008 .