Essay 4 - Brayden
Martin Luther King said, “There was a time when the Church was very powerful ... In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” This statement is a prime example of how Dr. King used metaphors in his writing to create an understanding of his beliefs. The church not being an actual thermometer, he’s describing that how the church can raise or lower society. King uses bold statements and imagery in his writing to provoke his fellow clergymen into taking action from his point of view on racial injustice.
Dr. King uses great word choice to put pictures into the reader’s head throughout his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King's letter he said, “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.” This puts a perfect picture in your head as they could not actually be in an airtight cage. Dr. King was proving the blacks are being metaphorically suffocated and were being kept in a lower society level through institutional segregation. Another thing that Dr. King said is, “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity,” he uses quicksand as a way of explaining how the black man has been sinking and how they need to be given a chance to be lifted up to a solid environment.
Not only does Dr. King use imagery but he also uses bold statements in his letter. Dr. King pointed out, “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal.” This is a shocking truth as most of society thinks of Hitler as a monster. By pointing out it was legal, it did not make everything he did right as were the laws against the black people. Dr. King proclaims “I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal” to show his peers that right is not always the law of the land. He questions the clergy men on the stand the church makes: "Who worships here? Who is their God?” As most religions believe their god is fair and kind to all people, he’s questioning why their god would be so cruel to hold the black men down, and how the church is more about the building of the churches rather than the spirit and the justification of the black man.
From these examples, you can tell that King uses bold statements and imagery strategically throughout the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to make his point. The powerful words made it clear to his audience of how he felt of society holding different rules for his fellow black men. I personally believe it took great courage for King to stand up for what he believed in. For somebody to risk their freedom, risk being ridiculed, and risk their life to help others that cannot speak for themselves is a very noble quality. Could you do the same? Could you stand up as Martin Luther King if you saw an injustice against somebody who cannot speak for themselves? I have learned from Dr. King's letter while standing up is right, doing so in a nonviolent way, as he did by using his powerful words of strong statements and imagery a person’s point can be made through word.
Dr. King uses great word choice to put pictures into the reader’s head throughout his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King's letter he said, “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.” This puts a perfect picture in your head as they could not actually be in an airtight cage. Dr. King was proving the blacks are being metaphorically suffocated and were being kept in a lower society level through institutional segregation. Another thing that Dr. King said is, “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity,” he uses quicksand as a way of explaining how the black man has been sinking and how they need to be given a chance to be lifted up to a solid environment.
Not only does Dr. King use imagery but he also uses bold statements in his letter. Dr. King pointed out, “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal.” This is a shocking truth as most of society thinks of Hitler as a monster. By pointing out it was legal, it did not make everything he did right as were the laws against the black people. Dr. King proclaims “I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal” to show his peers that right is not always the law of the land. He questions the clergy men on the stand the church makes: "Who worships here? Who is their God?” As most religions believe their god is fair and kind to all people, he’s questioning why their god would be so cruel to hold the black men down, and how the church is more about the building of the churches rather than the spirit and the justification of the black man.
From these examples, you can tell that King uses bold statements and imagery strategically throughout the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to make his point. The powerful words made it clear to his audience of how he felt of society holding different rules for his fellow black men. I personally believe it took great courage for King to stand up for what he believed in. For somebody to risk their freedom, risk being ridiculed, and risk their life to help others that cannot speak for themselves is a very noble quality. Could you do the same? Could you stand up as Martin Luther King if you saw an injustice against somebody who cannot speak for themselves? I have learned from Dr. King's letter while standing up is right, doing so in a nonviolent way, as he did by using his powerful words of strong statements and imagery a person’s point can be made through word.