Letter From Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had protested for civil rights throughout the most segregated places within the united states of America (at the time). Typically, Dr. King and other civil rights activists were arrested through breaking some unjust law in a moral and humane manner. Dr. King’s arrest in Birmingham CIty, Alabama, was one such famous event, as within the confines of Jail he responded to the bigoted arguments against civil rights. Dr. King achieved this through employing the rhetorical strategies of logical reasoning, appeal to emotion, & anaphora. The first major rhetorical strategy that Dr. King utilizes is an appeal to logos through logical reasoning. The deployment of this technique can be observed virtually everywhere throughout the textual piece, although there are some certain key points where the strategy is used.

Lastly, Dr. King employs the technique of repetition, the term of which is also coined as, “anaphora”. Anaphora is used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in various instances. Mre precisely, however, it’s effective appliance can be seen in paragraph 15. Throughout the large paragraph Dr. King explains why action must be done now to achieve Civil rights. This is in response to those who were wondering why there must be action taken now, and why they cannot just wait. In addition, King is responding to the detractors of the civil rights movement, who may not understand why such a movement is required. King uses anaphora by constantly repeating the phrase, “your”. This creates a sense of pathos as it connects to the audience and helps the audience understand the perspective of Dr. martin Luther King Jr. & other civil rights activists. The audience sees all the atrocities done to, and still being done to (at the time) minorities, and thus the use of anaphora helps strengthen Dr. King’s appeal to pathos, as the audience now understands the point of view of civil rights