Rhetorical Analysis

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes a letter to the clergymen of blank and the general
American audience in order to justify his intensions for protests in Birmingham and advocate
against segregation. In order to make his point effective he needs to make the foreign ideas of
African Americans become more familiar to white Americans. King effectively uses metaphors
and personal stories in order to help white Americans connect emotionally to the experiences of
African Americans and encourage them to fight against segregation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. infuses the twelfth paragraph with several stories of the
struggles black Americans face, which forces the reader to be put in the shoes of African
Americans. King uses the wording you to put the reader directly in the place of the African
American. One story Dr. Kings explains is when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your
mothers and fathers at will and down your sisters and brothers and whim. This is just one of the
many examples that King tells about the heart wrenching experiences of black people. Each story
he tells brings up different emotions and reminds the reader that African Americans are feeling
these same feelings and dealing with these situations in real life. Another story King tells is
when you take a cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the
uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you. This story is a
simple everyday life experience that many could relate with. It urges the readers to ask
themselves if this is the same way they live or if their experiences differ. It nudges into the
emotions of their hearts to ask if they would want to live this way or not. By pushing the reader
to think about these topics, King is potentially opening their minds to the idea of fighting against
what is wrong, segregation.

Paragraph twelve is also filled with many metaphors that help the reader connect the
reality to their emotions. King states, 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
Perhaps a white person cannot relate to what poverty feels like, but everyone at one point or
another has felt closed in. By relating poverty to an airtight cage, he opens the readers minds to
realize that the poverty African Americans deal with makes them feel trapped.
Another example of King using a metaphor in this paragraph is when a father is trying to
explain segregation to his daughter; he describes the feeling of see[ing] ominous clouds of
inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky (King). When you see big dark clouds
coming overhead, you can guess that a storm is coming. White Americans most likely do not
know how it feels to be treated as inferior, however they can connect to the feeling of despair.
These ominous clouds that this little girl is facing is the troubles she knows she will have to face
growing up as an African American. White Americans read this and can start to understand how
lucky their own children are to have rights and privileges.
Throughout paragraph twelve King also uses semicolons in a long sentence as a metaphor
to the constant trials of a typical African American. King tells story after story of the struggles
African Americans deal with and separates each one with a semicolon. The stories seem to never
end. This is an example of how the suffering of black people never seems to end. As the
semicolons drag on it gives the reader of taste of Kings experiences.
Dr. Kings metaphor of the dam reveals that American should fight for equality, not only
because segregation blocks social progress but because equality is a natural right given by God
to enforce what is to interfere with Gods plan. King states, law and order exist for the purpose
of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously

structured dams that block the flow of social progress. A dam is a man made structure that
blocks the natural flow of God made water. In the same way, man-made segregation laws are
blocking the flow of Gods plan. This lack of justice will prevent any social progress.
Dr. Kings metaphor in paragraph thirty makes known the darkness that the African
Americans are trapped and the hopelessness they feel because they are receiving no help from
the church body. King describes the neglect of the Christian community when he asks Where
were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise
from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest? King compares
the African Americans suppression to a dark dungeon to convict the Christians that they are not
doing their part in trying to help the African Americans out of that prison. If Christians are not
fighting against segregation, it is as if they are fighting for it. Not only are they not helping but
also the Christians are not striving towards the bright hills. King wants to make his point clear
that the protests going on in Birmingham were creative and not at all harmful. If I church
continues to stand back and stay uninvolved then its as if they are standing against the God
given rights of Gods creation.
Dr. Kings arguments may or may not have been seen as effective back in the day, but
today America is against segregation and much of the reason is because of his influence. I
believe in many situations telling personal stories can help you connect emotionally with others
and make your ideas more relatable. The same goes for metaphors, the unfamiliar starts to
become more understandable when you link it with another more tangible idea. All in All Dr.
King used these techniques effectively and changed the course of American history as we know
it.
Works Cited

King, Martin Luther. Latter from Birmingham Jail King Institute Resources. April 16,
1963. Web. September 23, 2014