King’s Letter Considered a Classic Argument
After being jailed in the Birmingham city jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister who preached nonviolence, wrote this response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama. This letter was not only composed under somewhat constricting circumstances but was written in a way that can be analyzed to be considered as a classic argument. Not only does it contain the five elements needed in a rhetorical situation, but the letter includes the six parts of an argument, the five types of claims, and even the three types of proofs. Dr. King’s letter fully satisfies all requirements needed in order to be considered a classic argument.In accordance to the TRACE elements needed in a rhetorical situation, all five are present. The text includes a letter type written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explaining why he is in a Birmingham city jail and the injustices he sees in the state of Alabama. The targeted audience is the eight fellow clergymen whom he is replying to after being presented a letter by those clergymen. The audience also includes the general public like the whites and the blacks in the community. The author of the letter is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself, a Baptist minister who preached nonviolence and was a pivotal leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Dr. King was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a vital group that led many affiliations to peaceful marches and sit-ins throughout the civil rights movement. The main motivation for this letter is Dr. King’s own view of the injustices apparent in the Negro community and the intended actions the community is taking. Some constraints Dr. King faces…
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…the social injustices many of the Negro community faced as wrong. An argumentative manner is most effective mainly due to its ability to present both sides of argument and never being considered bias to one side since both are being presented clearly. Though one side is usually favored by the writer, it is equally balanced in that the audience isn’t fooled into thinking or believing one side is fully clear of faults and errors. Since both sides are presented, one is left to choose which position to take. Furthermore, an argumentative text tends to inflict more of a response to the reader, so that he/she will tend to side with one position or the other. Either way, the reader is now a part of the issue at hand, making them directly a participant of the topic. This is effective in that it makes the audience or reader accountable for his or her actions and beliefs.
