Analysis of the Letter from Birmingham Jail


One of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail. The police arrested King for "parading without a permit" when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference asked him to do so as a protest in Birmingham, Alabama (172). While in jail, King received many criticisms. This letter is an answer to eight clergymen who criticized his actions. King conveys his message by appealing to ethos, by appealing to his primary audience, and by the structure of paragraphs two through five. King conveys his message by appealing to ethos. King does this many times throughout the letter. King writes that he follows just laws, but breaks unjust laws. He then compares breaking unjust laws with what the early Christians did. King tries to explain that the early Christians broke laws that they felt were unjust. He then writes that, today, many people look at the early Christians' movement as just. After giving these examples, King asserts the fact that he is a "minister of the gospel" and knows much about the history of Christianity. This assertion makes King appeal to ethos because when he writes that he is a minister it does not need to be said that he knows a lot about religion; it is automatically assumed that he know a lot about religion. Thus, it makes him credible when he uses religious examples pertaining to his cause.


As well as appealing to ethos, King also appeals to the audience. The primary audience is the criticizing clergymen. The clergymen are criticizing the way King works to gain civil rights for the African American community. One main thing that the clergymen want to know is why he breaks laws. King's response, once again, is that he only breaks unjust laws. Throughout the entire letter, King gives numerous examples of different events where unjust laws were broken. Many of these examples happen to be religious events. The clergymen say that they must condemn King's actions even though they are peaceful. King's response to this question is, "Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion" (180). Since his primary audience is clergymen, he appeals to them by providing religious evidence. By doing this, he reaches out to the clergymen because he is providing text that [url=http://www.giantsnflofficialauthentic.com/authentic-jay-bromley-jersey.html... they have seen or heard before. The potential outcome of this is [url=http://www.giantsnflofficialauthentic.com/authentic-andre-williams-jersey.h... that the clergymen are going to understand King's point of view better [url=http://www.giantsnflofficialauthentic.com/authentic-andre-williams-jersey.h... Andre Williams Jersey[/url] and they just might help him in his quest for civil rights.


Not only does King appeal to his audience, but the structure of the letter also helps project his message. The most important paragraphs, pertaining to structure, are paragraphs two through five. These four paragraphs transitions into rest of the letter. The second paragraph serves as an introduction to why King is in jail. As a result, the starting of the letter is very broad. As the reader reads the third and fourth paragraphs, the purpose of the letter starts to become clearer. Finally, King writes the fifth and most important paragraph. The purpose of the letter is most evident in the fifth paragraph. This structure has an important effect to the reader. The letter starts to build momentum from the second paragraph and builds to the fifth. Then the rest of the paper elaborates on the fifth paragraph. Had the order of paragraphs [url=http://www.giantsnflofficialauthentic.com/authentic-jay-bromley-jersey.html... two through five (fifth paragraph first and the second paragraph last) been switched King would start by being specific to getting broader. This would make the letter lose its momentum and paper would not be as powerful. Switching the paragraphs would be more jarring to the reader. The reader will know the purpose of the letter at the beginning and would expect to have an explanation and instead of an explanation, the reader would read an introduction. This is also another reason for why the letter would lose its momentum. Therefore, the structure of paragraphs two through five also help convey King's message.


King's use of appealing to ethos, appealing to his primary audience, and the structure of paragraphs two through five makes his letter effective. He gets his point across to the clergymen very effectively. Not only does he get the point across to the clergymen, but he also gets his point across to his secondary audience of "white moderates" and all of the African American community. The purpose of the letter is to help the clergymen understand King's motives and actions. This, however, is only a minor purpose. The larger encompassing theme is about African American civil rights. King was a civil rights leader and therefore, he used this letter as a tool to get his message across to everyone. In the end, all of King's rhetorical strategies helped convey his message very effectively.