MLK Letter Response
Daniel Arcega Mrs. Emerick IB English HL II MLK Letter Response Guiding Question: To what effect does MLK use allusions to reinforce his goal in writing this letter? King utilizes logos, pathos, and ethos to show flaws in his receiver's logic and to clarify their hypocrisy. In section 1, MLK references the bible and Socrates to support his reasons for the protesting in Birmingham and his involvement in it. When the clergymen question MLK’s right to interfere in the politics in Birmingham, MLK responds by using a biblical allusion to reveal the holes in their logic “ But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom