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Rhetorical Analysis of Letter from Birmingham Jail

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From the day our nation was established, it has always been ruled by the white man. When Martin Luther King Jr. was making his mark on America, he was imprisoned in a Birmingham jail for no apparent reason. While King was sitting in jail for no reason, eight white Alabama clergymen wrote a letter to African-Americans and urged them to stop protesting in the streets. King was disturbed by this letter, and responded by writing “A Letter From a Birmingham Jail” claiming that African-Americans will never receive the rights they deserve if they stop protesting. King used loaded language, metaphors, anaphora, and alliteration to help get his point across to his audience. King’s first rhetorical strategy he used was the use of loaded language. King used loaded language to help get across the horrors that were happening to the African-Americans. One example of this is when King said, “ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” (King 12). This statement told about the vicious and evil crimes that were happening against the African-Americans. King used this example because all people have a soft spot in their hearts for their family members. King also used emotionally loaded words such as kill, curse, and kick. King also used metaphors to help get across his point. An example of this is when King compared the progress of African-American’s gaining rights in Africa and Asia to “jetlike speed.” He then went on to compare African-American’s gaining right in the United States to "horse-and-buggy pace.” King was saying that other continents and countries were moving forward and giving African-American’s rights, unlike how the United States was taking forever to give them rights. King also used many other metaphors such as “abyss of despair,” “clouds of inferiority,” and “airtight cage of poverty” to describe the dark feelings t

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