Preview

Is Martin Luther King's Tone In Letter To Birmingham Jail

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
950 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Is Martin Luther King's Tone In Letter To Birmingham Jail
On April 16, 1963, where is there a better place to write a long letter than in a jail cell? Optimistic and bitter, Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” inspires the audience to come together to make a change and defends the people involved. King expresses his hope to the nation through his tone, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical tools. Kings optimistic and bitter tone inspires and defends the audience throughout his letter. Martin begins his letter with optimism about the future for him and his people. King discloses that although not everyone understand his motives, he has “no fear about the outcome” and whishes to change it. This is backed up when king is talking about the people before him and how “out of bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop” without the help of anything huge. He knows that what has happened in the past was wrong but continues to remind everyone how it can change. Hoping “racial prejudice will soon pass away” was kings way of letting the audience know that he still believed in change. Although he was still optimistic about the future of America, he was also bitter of what has happened. The future of the country will be the “old, oppressed batter negro women” who once stood up for what she believed in, but was put down. America is also defined by the young ones who will be “willing to go to jail for consciences sake” and to put their foot down to what is …show more content…
Rhetorical tools, appeals and tone help shape the way that King has seen and wants to see in the future days to America. King is able to encourage and represent the current body of the black and white people to make a change and stand up for their rights. The letter truly conveys King’s feelings towards how the blacks have been treated and how freedom needs to be achieved by coming together as brother and
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Letter From Birmingham Jail: Dr. Kings Fight For Justice And Equality
    • 68 Words
    • 1 Page

    Letter From Birmingham Jail: Dr. Kings Fight For Justice And Equality

    “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is written to the audience of clergymen. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote this letter to respond to clergymen who had questions for him. Paragraphs 12-14 are the most persuasive and thorough. King uses many rhetoric mechanism and appeals. Throughout those paragraphs, there is an excessive use of: pathos, logos, ethos, metaphors, symbolism, direct addressment and parallel structure.…

    • 68 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

    Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from Birmingham Jail was written on April 16, 1963 while he was incarcerated in the Birmingham City Jail. This letter addresses the criticism that a group of white men had thrown at him and his pro-black American organization about their non-violent actions against racial discrimination and injustice among black Americans in Birmingham. He notes that he doesn’t usually respond to letters of criticism but he thought that they were “good willed people and their criticism was sincerely set forth.” King writes this letter to defend his organization's actions. King's letter talks about…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Letter From Birmingham Jail Summary
    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Letter From Birmingham Jail Summary

    “Letter from Birmingham Jail: April 16, 1963” was written by Dr. Martin Luther King in response to published statements denouncing his non-violent protest in Birmingham, Alabama. The article, composed on scraps of paper, in the margins of the newspaper and finally on writing pads (King, 1963) by Dr. King as he was incarcerated in Birmingham City Jail for participating in a series of non-violent protests, known as the Birmingham Campaign. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is considered“the most important written document of the modern civil rights movement and a classic text on civil disobedience”, primarily due to King’s impassioned defense of his confrontational tactics. (Bass, 2001 )…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. uses rhetoric to persuade readers into supporting his cause. His letter addresses white men questioning his actions, though his message is for gaining supporters throughout America. Addressing the criticism of white men questioning and criticizing his recent behaviors, he begins explaining the motives behind his actions, their justification, and his next endeavors to rid America of its social injustices.…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    An Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” from jail in Birmingham, Alabama in response to a public statement issued by eight white clergyman calling his actions “ unwise and untimely”. African Americans have been waiting to have there civil rights of freedom, but the social courts has requested them not protest on the street but to take it to court. Dr. King wrote, “This wait has almost always meant never.” This is why Dr. king addresses this matter in a letter about the battle of segregation. He hopes that this letter will stop this injustice matter, and show what the African American desire. Furthermore, Dr. King had four steps to achieve his goals by collecting facts, negotiation, self-purification, and direct…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Martin Luther King Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Of Martin Luther King Letter From Birmingham Jail

    Martin Luther King Jr. concludes his letter with opposition to the commendation towards the police, his disappointment with the white church leaders, and the optimistic view of African American history throughout the United States. Dr. Kings letters primary purpose was to refute and discuss the accusations made against the SCLC and himself to justify his actions to the clergymen. The use of words such as “you” and “hope” are stated over and over throughout the letter, giving the reader a sense that he’s one of the people that’s going through the struggle of injustice and segregation among…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

    King wanted to ensure his audience understood why he was doing what he was doing as well as why he was using his chosen plan of action. King made his audience sympathize with is cause by using his words to bring about strong emotions in his readers. King does this by demonstrating what the African American community had to endure. King uses imagery and parallelism to accomplish this. The line, “When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown you sisters and brothers at whim…” (King 3) is an example of his use of these devices. His using these devices, as well as how this particular entire passage is structured, compels the reader to put themselves in the shoes of King and envision how he along with other African Americans must have felt during this time. This is arguably one of the most emotional passages in the entire letter. The goal here is to ensure that the reader remains engaged with the text as well as sympathetic to his…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    An Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail

    During the Spring of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led about a thousand African-Americans through non-violent protests in the business district in Birmingham. Unfortunately, he and other top activists were thrown into jail by Birmingham police in retaliation and were treated under harsh conditions, as did all African-Americans. On the day of his arrest, the Birmingham, Alabama newspaper published The Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen called King’s activities “unwise and untimely,” calling for the community to renounce protest tactics that caused unrest in the community, to do so in court and “not in the streets.” King wrote back from jail arguing each point the clergymen wrote in their “public statement”. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, King writes point by point his reasons for coming to Birmingham and the actions he had committed and why he wishes to continue his fight for equality. King successfully employed the use of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos by arguing back on legal, historical, and political grounds.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of A Letter From Birmingham City Jail
    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of A Letter From Birmingham City Jail

    The overall tone of Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter is a disgruntled and informative tone. Martin Luther King Jr. uses a disgruntled tone. You can see this tone with his word choice. For example he uses words such as “shameful, ugly, inhumane, and evil.” This shows how he is dissatisfied. You can also see his disgruntled tone in…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Mr. King's Speech
    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Mr. King's Speech

    The key phrases that I have identified are Negro and America from the beginning sentences. The correlation that I notice with the use of these phrases is that he is expressing to the public that a change needs to occur for America to create unity and equality for the Blacks to be included in society. In the following sentences from his speech, he expresses how no change has happened over the course of time towards the Black population. “But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.” “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” These key phrases express the main objective in his speech and that is the division between the Whites and Blacks in society. Mr. King is emphasizing that Blacks are still not free in society even though slavery has been abolished. He addresses the segregation that still exists which is promoting a form of discrimination among society. The end goal of his speech was to open the eyes of the nation to identify the problem and to act on this issue of discrimination by not engaging into the problem anymore.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    An Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages

    An Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    On April 16th, 1963, during the peak of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to a collection of clergymen in regards to his beliefs and protests. In his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” King aptly wrote to the clergymen about their concerns in a respectful manner, while maintaining his dignity and explaining his purpose. In order to validate his points, he first built his credibility, and from there flowed into a plethora of other strategies. His emotional anecdotes and insight are strong points in his letter, appealing to the clergymen’s sense of compassion and justice. The imagery that accompanies his writing creates vivid and horrifying scenes meant to encourage the reader to join King in his civil rights endeavors. Logically, King presents his values in a manner that becomes inarguable against, which furthers the persuasive value of his writing. His…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King
    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King

    In a “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King, Jr. said “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This means that if we let injustice happen, then this injustice will grow and start to affect good people. We cannot afford to ignore something bad happening in one place. If injustice occurs and no action is taken against this injustice, then people who hear about what happened might think this injustice is acceptable, and continue being unfair.…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    King's Letter from Birmingham
    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages

    King's Letter from Birmingham

    While in Jail for peaceful protesting for civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, Letter from Birmingham Jail. He wrote it to a group of clergymen who did not support his civil rights movement in order to try and gain their support. King adopts a tone of controlled anger in order to create a logical yet emotional argument.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tone Of Letter From Birmingham Jail
    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page

    Tone Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    In the written document, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Dr. King recognizes the injustice his fellow African Americans and himself have been suffering over the years. He was…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King's Use Of Metaphors In Jail
    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King's Use Of Metaphors In Jail

    Throughout the letter King utilizes metaphors to influence his readers. Go back 55 years to the 1960’s, everything was segregated from restaurants, to water fountains. African American people were tired of being brushed aside “I guess it is easy for those who have never…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics