Monday, August 25, 2008

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” 1

What is King’s tone in the opening paragraph? How might you make an argument for its being ironic?

12 comments:

MinJae Lee said...

King’s opening paragraph starts with sarcasm and irony toward the questions set forth to his activities. It is ironic how he starts it and sarcastic because he is in jail. “If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day,” (sentence 3). Shown by this passage, one can see the subtle sarcasm Martin Luther King Jr. integrates in the letter. He does not have secretaries helping him with his correspondence at the moment and all he can do is answer. He states that he will try to answer as best possible because he feels they are generally men of good will (sentence 3 second part). Through this paragraph, Martin Luther King Jr. subversively wants to send a message to the clergy that many have asked him and criticized him before as they had there. Through this he also wants to give them a false appraisal by making them the ones Martin Luther King Jr. chose to answer.

Norberto said...

Martin Luther King's opening paragraph demonstrates irony and sarcasm. It is sarcastic because he is writting in a jail cell, which is not recommendable especially if you want to represent a group of people. In the other hand, he is trying to answer to some clergy men who clearly aren't patient with King's ideas. Another funny, sarcastic part says, "If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondance in the course of the day." (Sentence 3) King does not have secretaries, but he focuses to reply and help as much as he can. He fills this paragraph with irony and sarcasm to emprint his authority and status upon the clergymen who have criticized him.

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Unknown said...

I don't think King is using sarcasm when he mentions the secretaries. This is actually logos as he did have secretaries, and if they did answer the criticism that came in, that is all they would be doing. Granted he was in jail at the time of writing this piece, but that does not make the comment immediately sarcastic. Moreover, sarcasm would not have served King in his ultimate goal...convincing the white moderate to support his cause. If readers had picked up on sarcasm, they would have stopped reading, and King's message would have been lost. Additionally, the use of the varying rhetorical strategies showed such careful thought and planning that the use of sarcasm does not fit his purpose.

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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

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