Letter from a Birmingham Jail Analysis Essay
In this letter, King uses various tones to respond to a group of white clergymen who argue that his way of fighting social injustice is improper and to justify his means to try to achieve his purpose.
King is a true civil rights activist and believes in only acting respectfully and nonviolently, but at the same time, the white clergymen, advocates of civil rights, condemn his nonviolent protest. King is “not unmindful of the difficulties involved” so he and his fellow activists have “decided to go through a process of self-purification” to be able to “accept blows” and to endure the “ordeals of jail” (King 1, 2). King uses his calm, explanatory tone to establish his creditability to his critics. …show more content…
King noticed throughout his life that, “History is the long tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily” (King 2). This quote establishes King’s credibility because he is not part of the privileged group, and has dealt with the lack of the privileges, that the white majority take for granted, his whole life. This causes his critics to take into account all the privileges they possess, but have denied to so many fellow Americans. This allows his audience and society to realize how poorly they treat the black minority. King chose this appeal because it applies not only to the white clergymen, but also to society as a whole. Unlike in the other statements, King is speaking not only to the white society, but also to his own black brothers and sisters. He uses this to unite society into one that no longer sees color, but only sees the equality of all races. King uses this grimmer tone to show the faults in the society that so many believed was perfect. In addition, he uses it to show the white clergymen that even though they claim to be Godly men they are still immoral in the way they treat the black minority. He establishes his tone by his use of words like privileged and voluntarily to invoke a sense of supremacy that have been going on throughout history. However, just like in history these groups who abuse their privileges and deny the lower classes the same rights are destined to be doomed and come to the same fate. King’s tone would be different based on the audience that would be reading this. To his black minority it would be perceived as motivation to work harder to gain equality. To the white majority this would be perceived as a call to action to take this unjust and unmoral separation of races and create an equality of all races. To the white clergymen this would be perceived as a
In this letter, King uses various tones to respond to a group of white clergymen who argue that his way of fighting social injustice is improper and to justify his means to try to achieve his purpose.
King is a true civil rights activist and believes in only acting respectfully and nonviolently, but at the same time, the white clergymen, advocates of civil rights, condemn his nonviolent protest. King is “not unmindful of the difficulties involved” so he and his fellow activists have “decided to go through a process of self-purification” to be able to “accept blows” and to endure the “ordeals of jail” (King 1, 2). King uses his calm, explanatory tone to establish his creditability to his critics. …show more content…
King noticed throughout his life that, “History is the long tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily” (King 2). This quote establishes King’s credibility because he is not part of the privileged group, and has dealt with the lack of the privileges, that the white majority take for granted, his whole life. This causes his critics to take into account all the privileges they possess, but have denied to so many fellow Americans. This allows his audience and society to realize how poorly they treat the black minority. King chose this appeal because it applies not only to the white clergymen, but also to society as a whole. Unlike in the other statements, King is speaking not only to the white society, but also to his own black brothers and sisters. He uses this to unite society into one that no longer sees color, but only sees the equality of all races. King uses this grimmer tone to show the faults in the society that so many believed was perfect. In addition, he uses it to show the white clergymen that even though they claim to be Godly men they are still immoral in the way they treat the black minority. He establishes his tone by his use of words like privileged and voluntarily to invoke a sense of supremacy that have been going on throughout history. However, just like in history these groups who abuse their privileges and deny the lower classes the same rights are destined to be doomed and come to the same fate. King’s tone would be different based on the audience that would be reading this. To his black minority it would be perceived as motivation to work harder to gain equality. To the white majority this would be perceived as a call to action to take this unjust and unmoral separation of races and create an equality of all races. To the white clergymen this would be perceived as a