Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Injustice Anywhere…Analyze the rhetorical strategies of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” In a 2-3-page essay, note and explain some of the rhetorical strategies of King’s “Letter.” Be sure to categorize techniques not only according to whether they make up a logos, ethos, or pathos rhetorical strategy, but more specifically what kind of strategy. For instance, you might explain that MLK is trying to make an appeal to pity or establish his credibility as a compassionate person. More importantly, you need to describe what is the specific purpose behind the strategy. I’d expect there to be around 5 major body paragraphs of analysis. Obviously, try to find a balance between logos, ethos, pathos and make sure to both quote the elements you’re talking about and to include a section of commentary about those elements. Avoid extremely obvious points of analysis (“King uses references to religious figures because he is talking to clergymen.”). Look for less obvious, more penetrating connections that add to the understanding of the rhetorical strategies. Look for places that illustrate a rhetorical strategy that one would not notice unless one were very, very smart. Like you, for instance. Extra credit assignment: Those looking for more credit to offset regrettable performance on past tests can add 2-3 paragraphs that compare and contrast strategies that King use in “Letter” with those used by Thoreau in “Civil Disobedience.” In these paragraphs, your purpose is to note either similarities to show how using the same strategy work even if the purpose is different, or differences in order to note why a change in tactics is important because of a differing purpose, situation, audience, or persuasive inclination. Common Paragraph formatting: Topic Sentence Setting up the context of a quote and its type of strategy The quote The commentary: explaining the purpose of the strategy and the thinking behind it as well as its effectiveness. Connect to other aspects of the Letter. Resources: Annotated version of Letter with helpful commentary on historical allusions The Silva Rhetoricae: An exhaustive compendium of rhetorical figure and strategies The Figaro figures: A much more accessible list and set of examples for common rhetorical figures American Rhetoric: An audio database of rhetorical strategies as well as great speeches made by Americans Compare and Contrast Essays: The Guide to Grammar and Writing Way…or the Book Rags way. Or…there is always Wikipedia! Grading 40 points 40 points Strong use of evidence (quoting, specific examples) Incisive and meaningful analysis of strategies. 20 points Clear organization (Did you follow the structure) 100 points Total Sample student’s work Martin Luther King Jr. is honored today because, simply put, he redefined the values of a nation. The way people thought about themselves, about others, and about the tenets of their own lives and of the government by which they were ruled, was irrevocably reevaluated and transformed. This paradigm shift was necessary to achieve eventual equality, for no significant change could have been gained without first changing the minds of those opposing desegregation. In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King applies this same concept to his open letter. Writing to a community that holds an ingrained opposition to his actions and ideas, King has to redefine such basic concepts as a law, religion, and extremism. In doing so, he also redefines himself and the movement he champions. One of the first places King displays this ability is when he discusses the difference between a just and unjust law. King must acknowledge that he breaks the law and encourages others to do so, but must do this is in a way that shows he is still a rational and morally upstanding individual. In order to do this he differentiates between a just and unjust law, therefore altering his audience’s original interpretation of a law. King says, “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” Here, King defines a law to be not just a legal code, but a moral one as well. While his process for differentiating between just and unjust laws is logical and clear, perhaps a more important piece is the emotional appeal to morality. This ethical side makes it very difficult to disagree with King. One could no longer ask another person to follow a law that supports segregation without revealing a lack of moral consciousness. By changing the definition of a law, King turns the illegal and “wrong” act of breaking a law into something necessary, a moral obligation, and in fact the only honorable option. Breaking laws is only one part of the criticism against Martin Luther King, however. He is also accused of being an extremist, which like breaking laws has a clear negative connotation. Here is another allegation that King must refute, and he again does this by interpreting extremism in a new way: “Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God."… So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.” As before, King differentiates between two kinds of extremists and aligns himself with the morally correct kind. The examples of “extremists” that he uses all show passion for things closely related to himself: love for all mankind, even those that oppose you, justice, Christianity, equality, and even eradication of slavery. Each “extremist” is also a person highly respected not only by the clergymen of his audience but also by much of society, and their causes are all positive and embraced almost unanimously. King changes extremism to include respected people with respectable causes, and by linking himself so closely too them, becomes one of them. Though Letter from a Birmingham Jail is an open letter, it is directly addressed to clergymen. Therefore, King is making a bold statement when he criticizes the contemporary church. Towards the end of his letter, King expresses his disappointment in the church by distinguishing between the old and the modern, and through this holds his audience to a higher expectation. He says, “In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society… So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo.” Again we see King redefining religion and the church in terms of what is morally good and right and what is not. Though he never says it directly, King is showing that he views the actions of his audience, the clergymen, as “weak” and “ineffectual,” only holding up the “status quo.” He is disappointed not just with the church in general but with the very people he is speaking with, and in this way shows them his expectations. While revealing their actions to be unethical and weak, he also states an expectation for them to change their ways. In the face of a society that disagreed with and even condemned his ways, Martin Luther King Jr. had to shift the perspectives of his audience in order to convince them he was in the right. To do this in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King redefines both his own actions and the actions of those opposing him so that they are in his favor. Instead of breaking laws, he is following a moral code against an unjust decree. Extremism becomes a passion for what is honorable. The white, modern church that does nothing against segregation becomes an institution “blemished and scarred…through fear of being nonconformists.” In doing this he does not only redefine words or concepts, however. He effectually redefines himself and the civil rights movement as a whole, showing it to be the only path leading towards morality.