Caleb Houston

Ms. Plummer
English 211C
Reflection
Reflection
The analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from a Birmingham Jail was an
assignment in which I used the document itself and rhetorical analysis of strategies to construct
an essay on a specific part of the letter to describe how Dr. King uses these strategies to
successfully reach the audience. Throughout the essay I selected several ideas and strategies to
focus on throughout the essay and to describe Dr. Kings efficient use of allusions and ethical and
emotional withdrawal. In this reflection I will discuss different points in which I felt my essay hit
on in the criteria of this assignment.
I analyzed a section in which I defined his audience, and purpose for using religious
allusions and personal knowledge to create an emotional and ethical response from the audience.
In Letter to a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Kings audience is, by the obvious eye, the group of
Clergymen in which he received a letter from but in deeper analysis, his true audience is defined
as the black community, women, and white racists in all. He uses this approach in referring to the
Clergymen as his indirect commentary to the underlying community in which he creates ethical
and emotional appeals to that audience using many allusions, anecdotes, and personal examples.
The context of the essay in which Dr. King writes is one that uses a personal yet formal approach
in which he defines his main ideas and points through questions he asks the audience. The
purpose of his essay is to simply spark more support and interest in the civil rights movement.

I believe the strengths of this essays involve the personal touch and use of common
knowledge allusions to extract interest from the audience. He delivers his purpose and
recommendations successfully with the use of strategies in which he creates many various
opportunities for the audience to judge and approve his credibility. He also gives both sides to
the argument in which he hopes that his argument will outshine the opposing; this as well gives
the audience a chance to decide his credibility. He expects this judgment in which he uses
personal examples to change the audiences perspective from ethical to emotional in which he is
confident his argument will be deeply embedded in the audiences thoughts.
I felt as though some problems I ran into while analyzing this essays had mainly to do
with the difference in time periods in which this essay was written fifty years prior to my
analysis. He made common allusions to that of Hitler in which I understood fully but the
problem arose with the use of religious allusions and other events and incidents that took place in
that time period and other prior in which my public education and/or my personal knowledge had
notion of. Use of allusions to St. Augustine and other event were the hardest part about the
analysis of this essay in which I needed to understand the significance of these figures and events
in order to properly decipher Dr. Kings argument and underlying points.
When running into cultural and timely trouble with the analysis of this essay, I turned to
the internet for research and explanation. Most of which I used biographies, forums, and
historical texts to learn about the figures and events in which Dr. King referred to in his essay. I
found it was important to fully understand allusions and examples he used in order to properly
discuss and interpret his ideas and points throughout the piece.
The many strategies used throughout this essay included many allusions and examples in
order to create an ethical and emotional responses as well as establish credibility with the

audience. Dr. King successfully delivered his ideas and solutions in which I feel I could discuss
confidently and use to describe my views and others views on the topic discussed in this essay. I
feel as though the methods I used to complete this assignment also helped to allow me to fully
understand Dr. Kings approach and underlying meaning.