Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to the eight Alabama clergymen under the confines of a jail cell in a Birmingham, Alabama prison. The letter stated his thoughts and opinions on the racial tension between the white and the black communities of Alabama. Martin Luther King’s letter was written as a rebuttal to the letter he received from the Alabama clergymen that stated the demonstrations, protests, and acts of civil disobedience of the Negro community were unlawful and should be put to a stop immediately. Martin Luther King replied by indicating that the blacks had a right to peaceful protests; they were simply trying to educate the community about the prejudices present in Alabama and to motivate a change. King incorporated the tree rhetorical strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos throughout his letter. In Martin Luther …show more content…
Throughout the letter, King made many arguments that were refutations to accusations made by the clergymen in their letter to him. King recognized the arguments made by the clergymen and for each argument he provided a strong counterargument. One of King’s counterarguments …show more content…
King also practiced logos throughout the letter by commanding the clergymen or black community to make a change, in doing sot King was able to state his desired value of the letter. He writes, “Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.” (King 205) This sentence logically appeals to the audience and states an obvious fact. King refers to the black community as “the robbed” and the white community as “the robber” in his letter. Not only is this an appeal of logos, but this is also an example of an imperative sentence in which King urged and/or commanded the reader to “punish the robber and protect the