Rhetorical Devices In Letter From Birmingham Jail

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King was writing a response to a group of clergymen that had written an open letter in the paper about his unlawful protests. He was in jail for protesting in Birmingham without the proper permits. In the open letter, the clergymen, “called for the community to renounce protest tactics that caused unrest in the community, to do so in court and "not in the streets.”(Rothman). King’s response, which he wrote while in jail, was 20 pages long. In his response Martin Luther King Jr. uses rhetorical devices to prove his beliefs to the Clergymen and the reader.
In the open letter, the Clergymen call Martin Luther King Jr. an extremist. King responds by using many rhetorical devices. One of these devices is allusion, allusion is when you reference a story or text to enhance your point. King uses allusion multiple times throughout the text, one time he states, “ Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”(King, ,12). King references and quotes Jesus because of his audience. He is trying to convince the clergymen that he is an extremist and, …show more content…
On page 13, Martin Luther King uses repetition by saying, was not ,example of an extremist, an extremist. He then gives a quote by that person and moves onto the next person. By giving multiple examples of extremists King solidifies his point. There is not just one fluke example, there are multiple solid examples. This many examples makes it hard to question King at this point in the letter. The clergymen have to listen to him because of how strong his evidence is. Repetition also initiates a rhythm in the writing. A rhythm can make the reader more comfortable with the writing because they know what to expect, and what is going to