Anning Li
ENG 201, Section 41
Professor Matyakubova
March 19, 2015
On the road to be a hero, a man will always
encounter a lot of ups and downs, and it is these frustrations make a person
become strong.It Requires great courage and responsibility to lead a campaign
and often one would be criticized. However, the author, also the great civil
right movement leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. Does not care about what others may think of him.
In this letter he illustrated
his harsh journey in pursuing freedom of black and all color ethnic groups in
the U.S. His actions,words and speeches has shown his impact. He demonstrates an
amazing ability of his words,which, enable him to participate and pointed the
road for black society to united. He use syntax ,experiences,Q&A,tone,allusion,and
imagery to appeal to readers.He is able to bring reader into a world of emotion
that the current white society abuse of. In He also addressed in the letter that he would not sit idly and let the
unjustified law continues under the control of majority white men.
There were many unjustified law as King
mentioned, a law special made in the southern area was ‘ Jim crow’ law, It
legalized the separation of public system of black and white society. State and local governments passed
segregation laws, known as Jim Crow laws. Blacks and whites were educated
separately,and of curse the African-American were often mistreated, even if
they had paid the same amount of money.‘The
discount education given Negroes will in the future have to be purchased at
full price if quality education is to be realized. Jobs are harder and costlier
to create than voting.’ Colored
were less likely to be success because of such legitimate but unfair law.One of
the many reason King is here in Birmingham jail because he was he was willing
to speak up for the brutal action.
Martin Luther King, Jr’s language
was so strong, which, had perfectly shown his and larger black society’ s will
of united of withe brothers.King,In his quest to become a great leader of civil
right,had shown his talent in public speaking in his early school debate team.
One’s word can never be so persuasive if the person had not been through some
profound events ,he is not a exception.At a young age, JR had to endure betrayal
of his only white fellow,and humiliations by the kid’s father. Such tragedies
eventually prompt him to commit in the movement.However,the whole story would
not begin if it was not a incident that he heard about a women got arrested for
seat on a bus, where she was not allowed to. King knows injustice still occurs
and if it happened to one people,the rest of people is going to be included. He
realized there must be some action to gain back respect.He lead African
American to urge the society to desegregate by non-violent disobedient. He
dedicated his whole life, fight for the human rights of colored. He started
with gathering people for boycott, which,caused his house to be burn down and
lost of his liberty. King’s life was full of tackles,but it will not stop him
in contributing to African American’s society. He clearly knows;the only way he can truly liberate
blacks, regain their entitlement,is to keep going on the road, The suffering
will only make one stronger.
Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential leaders in
American history, this letter is one of many reason why citizens have equal
rights. His passage spread a great impact on reader by some meaningful
sentences. One example is ‘"Oppressed
people...oppressed forever", unlike other
complicated and long sentence, it is short and simple. But It is special which
shift reader’s attention on the sentence itself, without making any guessing or
relating to any thing. It puts emphasis on the sentence. Another example of
syntax ‘But can this assertion be logically made? Isn't this like
condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of
robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment
to truth and his philosophical delving s precipitated the misguided popular
mind to make him drink the hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because
His unique
God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil
act of crucifixion? By
those questions, King really wants reader to think hard. Perhaps he hopes
reader could put themselves under each of those situation,and feel his implied
meaning of it. Using the syntax King is really able to involve with readers, he
wants reader to actively participate in his ideas.
In order to obtain realism,one has to know
it’s fundamental element,which is Irony.King write the letter with some irony
to make himself more clear and let the society know that he is still with them
even though his body is in jail.King
assumes reader would ask for the reason of his imprison, so he explained;‘Several
months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage
in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily
consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with
several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have
basic organizational ties here.’ by the quote, King used irony to protrude his braveness,confident and
wisdom,which he states that he is willing to live up to his pursues to the
society and it is not to matter even if the consequence was severe punishment.
As a leader, King kept his promise.He used the power of ironic to satirize the
cruel society, where, men who are willing to speak up for injustice,will be
throw into jail. His imprison had shown that injustice was truly exist, and he
did the right thing.The quote demonstrated King’s commitment in civil movement
and proven that being a leader, one needs to confront many unknown possibilities.
King does a
great job in integrating the reasons for black people,who, constantly breaking
the law at the time. The used of allusion has shown that it was the injustice
law cause people to offend. In quote(page3) ‘we must see the need of having nonviolent
gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise
from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of
understanding and brotherhood.’ this
reveals that king has already know in order to have justified law, he had to
break the unjustified law and desegregate both society. He knows that the March
was necessary in purpose to awake more brothers both in white and black ethnic
to group up. Only this way, they can then celebrate the freedom.Despite,king’s action
was totally non-violent, he and his marchers were still arrested. It alludes
that Jr did the right thing but it was considered illegal.
King states many of his opinion in requisite
of freedom, it allows reader to follow up with his intention, lead us travel
through his mind. He says (in page 3) ‘We know through painful experience that
freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the
oppressed.’ this quote means that liberty is given to those people who are
willing to fight for it, live for it and die for it. It will not come to you if
you were careless. He expresses profound meaning, one may often takes whole
life to get it. The quote was a perfect example of his opinion toward
freedom.It conveys that the African-Americans has to take executive activities
to prove the value of their life.It is also an indicator for the start of the
march against injustice in Birmingham.
In ‘letter from Birmingham jail’ king’s uses
of feverish tone really inspire readers and help people understand the severe
circumstance that they are in.One can easily feel JR’ s emotion when he writes ‘Whatever
affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live
with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives
inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.’ It implies that
injustice to one African-American directly, is injustice to the whole group
indirectly, they will no longer endure the inequality. They believe all people
are equal in America. This quote alone with aggressive tone, which,enable
reader to perceive King’s strong desire for equality. The usage of the tone brings us an image of
people, who are constantly mistreated has united together by the craving for
liberty.
The biggest strength of this letter is the
used of imagery.King has utilized the power of imagery to appeal to the
society. He describes ‘But when you have seen vicious
mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers
at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and
even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast
majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage
of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.’ The passage provided us many
example of images. The used of verb such as
lynch, curse, kick,kill and drown help to portray
how badly racial differences influenced the way people acted towards each other.Also in order to gave
us a concept of the harm bring by segregation he say ‘the stinging darts of
segregation’, It portrays that segregation hurts many people, and they are not
willing to suffer anymore.
King concluded the letter with vivid
details,such as the police department set free the dog to tear down the
non-violent protester, using fire hoses shots water toward them. Although King
would not frighten by that, he says ‘We are not going to stand for this in Birmingham,” “And if necessary we will fill the jail full
and we don’t care whose toes we step on.” King and those protectors came
prepared, they were prepared of those means that used by those brutal people.
And they are not afraid as long as their craving for liberty did not stop.
References
Corky, S.(May
3, 2012,)Birmingham
erupted into chaos in 1963 as battle for civil rights exploded in South, form http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/birmingham-erupted-chaos-1963-battle-civil-rights-exploded-south-article-1.1071793
De Jong, G. (2010). Invisible
Enemy : The African American freedom struggle after 1965. Chichester, U.K.:
Wiley-Blackwell.
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