In a, “ Letter from Birmingham Jail,”(1963) Martin Luther King Jr. proves that his position in the Birmingham Jail is necessary due to the fact that racial issues affect the nation as a whole, not just one particular place. His purpose is to nationalize racial issues in order for all African Americans to achieve equality. With his persuasive tone and the serious topic, he provides a solid argument by using pathos, allusions, and an antithesis. In doing so he outreaches his messages to all United States citizens, and clergymen to bring light to the darkness of racial issues.
The old saying that “ A crown’s no cure for a headache,” pertains to the issue at hand with why Martin wrote this letter. He says, “ We know through painful experience…
He waits until it is towards the end of the essay to speak about the clergymen’s claim that the police behaved in a respectful manner, and picks certain places throughout to address and disagree with the claims made. He strings them along to keep them reading. At one point during the letter Martin refutes the clergymen’s accusation that he and his people are “outsiders” by using an Allusion. He states, “ …I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C.left their villages and carried their “ thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home town, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Taurus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of the freedom beyond my home town. Like Paul, I am constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” ( 282) By stating that, Martin uses a religious allusion so that the clergymen will get what he is trying to say, and connects to his background as being president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as his many other religious…
