Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a masterpiece containing rhetorical strategies almost too numerous to identify and analyze. Here are just four:
Early in the letter, King uses refutationwhen he addresses being called an "outside agitator" by the Birmingham authorities. King asserts that "anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." With regard to oppression based on race, King does not...
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a masterpiece containing rhetorical strategies almost too numerous to identify and analyze. Here are just four:
Early in the letter, King uses refutation when he addresses being called an "outside agitator" by the Birmingham authorities. King asserts that "anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." With regard to oppression based on race, King does not see geographic boundaries in the United States.
King also uses concession when he asks the rhetorical question, "Isn't negotiation a better path?" This is something his opponents might ask, and he then answers, "You are quite right in calling for negotiation." King emphasizes that he and his supporters prefer nonviolence in addressing the institutionalized racism that plagues the country.
King uses a metaphor to contrast the social and political backwardness of the United States with the progressiveness of other nations when he writes "the nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter." This is also an appeal to pathos; the United States looks pathetic in its inability to recognize its citizens' essential humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment