Martin Luther King’s Rhetorical Strategies

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As a leader of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Martin Luther King argues for the urgency of changing segregation laws. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” it addresses the public statement made by the Eight Alabama Clergymen. King effectively proves that his demonstration in Alabama was not “unwise and untimely” as his fellow clergyman has stated through the use of sentence structures, an anaphora, and some metaphors. To demonstrate his desperation for change, King stresses on the amount of time the Africans in the United States had waited through a well-planned use of sentence structures. He repeats “wait” in paragraph 13 to build up tension and to place more emphasis to the word. This leads to the periodic sentence of paragraph 14, “But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim… then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” This style of sentence leaves the reader no time to pause until the end of the sentence, which is achieved through the use of multiple commas while ending the lengthy sentence with a period. Within the periodic sentence, he uses a form of completeness to describe how Africans were being persecuted. Instead of writing out the full name, he divides it up into three different parts, each building up even more tension and forcing the readers to wait even more. These styles can effectively draw the readers' full attentions while highlighting King’s views on segregation. To give a more in depth feeling of how Africans felt in the 1950s and 1960s, King deliberately uses anaphora. “When you” is used in the beginning of every clauses within the periodic sentence. The “you” in particular is directed toward readers, which gives them a feeling as if they were experiencing the occurrence. This can draw out the reader’s emotion, especially
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