Choose one of the following topics. Once a topic is chosen, it is off the market. First come first serve.
Topic # 1:
Martin Luther King Jr. considers the accusation that he is an “outsider” meddling in local affairs. Analyze the strategies used to argue his position.
Topic #2:
Martin Luther King Jr. considers the accusation that he has resorted to demonstrations rather than negotiations. Analyze the strategies used to argue his position.
Topic #3:
Martin Luther King Jr. considers the accusation that his nonviolent protest movement is “unwise and untimely”. Analyze the strategies used to argue his position.
Topic #4:
Martin Luther King Jr. considers the accusation that his nonviolent protest movement breaks the law. Analyze the strategies used to argue his position.
Topic # 5:
Martin Luther King Jr. considers the accusation that his nonviolent protest movement is “extreme.” Analyze the strategies used to argue his position.
Topic # 6:Martin Luther King Jr. expresses his grave disappointment with the white church and its leadership. Analyze the strategies used to argue his position.
You will be choosing the passage from King's letter that relays the ideas from the prompt you are assigned.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND: "Strategies" does not mean just schemes and tropes. The prompts above ask you to identify and connect how strategies are used in the passage you're working with. This could mean anything from this Rhetorical Framework graphic.
Topic #4:
ReplyDeleteIn A Letter from Birmingham City Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. establishes how the demonstrations of civil disobedience he leads and takes part in are justified as a response to accusations that his nonviolent protests are lawbreaking acts. While King clearly has a mastery of his own ethos, as can be seen through his inability to skirt around the issue at hand and his eloquence in addressing it, as well as an impressive command of pathos as evinced by his usage of imagery when describing impoverished streets and cities, his real strength is in his argument and presentation of it. He does so through his appeals to logic and, more specifically, the commonplaces. King begins the debate over the legality of his protests with a definition of law itself. He divides the term ‘law’ and then proceeds to categorize it as can be found when he says “…there are two types of laws: There are just laws and there are unjust laws” (King). He takes a logical route by appealing to the common wisdom that a moral person is obligated to do what is ethical. In this particular instance, it is accepted that one can do what is just and right by following laws that are just and right. By extension then, it is immoral to follow laws that are unjust. It is this breakdown via a borderline syllogistic form of deductive reasoning that gives King the right to justify his protests. He then takes this further by calling upon a greater testimony. King uses the authority of another great mind to affirm his own thoughts and conclusions. He invokes the name of someone that, contextually, a group of clergymen would respect. King quotes Saint Augustine and his claim that “An unjust law is no law at all.” In this maxim of a statement, he not only solidifies his own position as a man of faith among other men of faith, but he reaffirms his overall statement of this particular part of the letter—what is legal is not necessarily right, and, likewise, what is right is not necessarily legal. He continues to differentiate between just and unjust laws by defining each of these terms further. King claims that just laws, while man-made, are always in harmony with God’s moral law. If a law is out of order with God’s natural law, then it can be assumed that it is immoral and unjust. The continued appeal to logic throughout gives King the ability to define the terms of his conversation and, thus, command the logical flow of it, making him one of the most accomplished rhetors of our time.
I like how you mentioned that king used deductive reasoning to justify his protests.
DeleteIt was a good idea for you to include an example of a maxim used within his claim.
DeleteTopic #6
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King Jr. is thrown in prison and writes a letter on April 16, 1963 that we know today as “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In this Letter King goes on to talk about a number of things including his disappointment in the white church. He talks about how he loves the church so much that he weeps for her. He mentions how the early church was also being persecuted for being disturbers of the peace and outside agitators. Now the same thing was happening to King’s community and we were the ones doing it. The church was strong back then, the put an end to their suffering but today King calls contemporary Church weak. King basically threatens the church and tells us if we don’t shape up and become more like the early church we will be shrugged off and seen as no more than a mere social group that is irrelevant to our society. King is a good rhetor, he knows how to use his words to get people to think and see things his way. He thanks God and the people who have been thrown out of their churches to follow King’s movement he even suggests that he must turn to the inner Church. The Church inside the Church, the spiritual Church.
Perhaps I simply misunderstood either the text or your comment, but I thought that his address of the "inner Church" was a threat to resign to inner spirituality instead of community. To clarify, I thought he meant that if the Church was going to be uncivil, then he was going to abandon Christian community in favor of solitude in belief, faith, and prayer.
DeleteI really like how you related the issues King's church had to the same ones we have today.
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ReplyDeleteTopic #3
ReplyDeleteRight at the beginning of his Rhetoric Martin Luther addresses that his fellow pastors think that his present activities “unwise and untimely”. He then states “ Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work an ideas”. He fully admits to not pausing and addressing the problems that other people have for his work, witch is no doubt extensive. He then says that if he had To release statements every single time that someone had a problem with him, he would never leave his desk. Martin Luther tells his fellow companions that he can’t answer all of their questions and accusations or else he can’t do anything constructive. At the end of this particular paragraph or statement he says that he wants to answer their statements and he hopes he does it it in reasonable terms. These words he uses definitely shows how willing he is to answer questions and help everyone to better understand his movement.
I agree with you about his choice of words after every paragraph, he truly knows what he is fighting for if he is willing to answer any questions.
DeleteI like how you mentioned that he probably received criticism about his thoughts and if he would have answered he never would have left his desk.
DeleteI like how you discuss how he admits he has faults, but he will try his best to answer their questions. People see him as perfect and he states that he can't always handle what's on his plate.
DeleteTopic #1
ReplyDeleteWe have all felt like an outsider in some situation, whether it be at a large or small scale. But when have you ever been accused of being one? On Martin Luther King Jr.’s case, he was accused of being an outsider intervening in local affairs, which he decided to address in A Letter from Birmingham City Jail. In the second paragraph, King addresses that people have been influenced by “outsiders coming in.” Following this statement, King gives examples of why his argument belongs with the rest. He established his ethos by telling the people he’s addressing of what he’s done: served the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organizations such as the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. In a few more paragraphs, Martin Luther again talks about how he is not truly and outsider, although he may seem like one. Here he addresses the audience, because here he talks about how no one is ever really an outsider. He is “cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states.” In simpler terms, King is aware of how everyone everywhere is connected in one way or another. He says how, he cannot just sit in his Alabama home and watch issues occurring in Birmingham. And we cannot help this connection. We are all tied up in something that will affect us no matter how far away we are from each other. After all, “whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Take the LasVegas shooting as a modern day example. While we may safe here, many states away, we most likely heard about it somehow every single day for up to a week after it happened. Our safety felt like nothing as we grieved for another part of our country going through something so tragic. As with the hurricanes that happened this year. While we were safely sleeping in our homes in Pennsylvania, we knew that others were struggling to find a home, which prompted sub to help. Just like us, although King may have seemed like an outsider, the ethical issues of racism going on somewhere else in the world prompted him to help push for a better life for everyone
I enjoyed how you established King’s belief for justice. You included that although he was safe where he was he seeked to help others and decides to do what is right.
DeleteThe way you related MLK's themes of interconnectedness with current situations was honestly a little eye opening. It really bridges one of his most important points in a way that makes it both relevant and accessible.
DeleteRelating his problems with ours is a really good way to understand what he was going through. Great job
DeleteTopic #5
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King Jr. develops many reasons backing up his nonviolent protests as being legal and efficient. Others accuse these protests as violent, illegal, and extreme. Martin Luther King Jr. develops his argument through moral justice, goodwill, and the actually law. He knows what he his arguing may be a little extreme but the ways Martin Luther establishes the argument are not extreme. He does not hurt anyone and just states what he thinks is right. In his case his rights were being taken away and then he is the one being accused of breaking the law. Martin Luther states in his letter from Birmingham City Jail, “I feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.” Nothing sounds extreme about that Martin Luther King Jr. is just establishing his own goodwill within the letter. This also shows that Martin Luther is willing to be patient towards the situation. The law gives people rights and in this such case they do not have all these rights so Martin Luther fights for his through being patient, establishing goodwill, and being morally correct.
I like when you used quotes. It shows your point well.
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