Letter From Birmingham Jail

Words: 1028
Pages: 5

There are many ways one could compare and contrast “I have a Dream” and “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” by Martin Luther King. In these texts, King uses analogies, repetition, and rhetorical questions. He uses analogies in many different ways between the two texts and some compare and contrast to each other. In each of the text he also uses rhetorical questions and repetition that can compare and contrast. Some of the analogies, questions, and repetition are very similar to each other, but others are also very different from each other. Many analogies are used in the two texts. One analogy used in “I Have a Dream” is when King states, “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come marked as “insufficient funds.” What King means by this is that people in America do not treat Negroes the same as whites and do not value them the same. King wants to try to strengthen the negroes reputation and wants them to be treated the same as white people. In “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” an analogy is used that states “Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” This analogy is referring to how Paul’s plan was to visit and strengthen churches. After …show more content…
Analogies are an important part of how King expresses and compares things in the two texts. Repetition is a way King is able to get his point across and make the reader think about what he really means when repeating certain words and phrase. Finally, rhetorical questions are a very important part of both the speech and the letter. In the letter, King uses more rhetorical questions to try and explain to the reader what he is thinking and how he feels. These are the many devices King uses in his letter and speech to get the reader to understand that discrimination is not right and it should