An Analysis of Birmingham Jail

Martin wrote powerful use techniques like ethos, pathos and logos with also some other literally techniques. Among them, he was highly effective in the use of pathos-the use of emotions to appeal to the audience. He used very well examples and comparisons from the Bible, and it helped him create emotional writings to connect to different audiences; audiences like the eight persons who criticized him and to the community both white and colored. The first line of the letter takes us to a strategy using pathos or emotions to appeal to get the attention of the audiences. Martin Luther writes, “While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came…” in this quote his diction centers the attention of the dungeons of the jail. One is forced to imagine the filthy crowded rooms with little ventilation. The blacks were living a life which was no better than the life in the filthy rooms in the jail. One feels sorry for him from the very beginning of the letter. Martin feels generous towards the white clergymen who he calls “men of genuine goodwill”, this make him look a man of peace and not a person of hatred. He used diplomatic criticisms (he doesn’t referred to the white audience specifically) to avoid harsh words against the whites. This soft tone seems to have calm and awe-inspiring to many white audiences, where having second thoughts.

Martin Luther King Junior appeals to religion in such way that makes us feel and imagine, that we portrait him to resemble to Apostle Paul. He mentions that the reason he is in Birmingham is the reason of “injustice” and “the Macedonian call for aid”. Like Paul, he carried a gospel of Jesus that in God’s eyes we are all equal. Even thought the unjust man-made laws are “out of harmony with the moral laws” and Martin looks for change. They call him an extremist because he is “too great a religious hurry”. As he said “time itself is neutral… human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” Time is used for positive and negative doings but with the help of God time is nothing. Martin felt disappointed with the title as an extremist, but then rejoices when he thinks of people like Jesus for being an extremist for love.