Dr. Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham Jail was a response to his critics, particularly clergymen who denounced all his activities, saying they amounted to incitement and unrest in society. However, King had an answer to all their concerns and declared that his actions were in the best interest of society, including those who opposed him. To this end, the prison letter aimed to explain to the public his motivation for activism and resistance to government power. In effect, he used this letter as a communications tool to convince the public that his actions were well informed and that he cared about them more than his own self-interest. To this end, King incorporated several aspects of appeal into the letter to convey his message across divisions. These argumentative strategies helped reinforce his message to the public, thereby challenging his critics' notion that he was using such resistance to sabotage the government. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayPrimarily, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr relied on the use of allusion to give credence to his actions and to reaffirm his position on the civil disobedience he defended in America. In providing answers to the clergy, King alluded to certain philosophers whose ideologies aligned perfectly with his stance on equality and freedom from oppression. Some of the philosophers he alluded to include Socrates and Thomas Aquinas. MLK stayed away from this subject and challenged critics to read the works of these philosophers, which he believed would significantly change their attitude toward it. The use of allusion was a powerful strategy that King adopted to persuade the public and clerics that his fight was propagated by the desire to liberate the public against the imperial government that recognized only a few white elites. King's argument is based in particular on Kantian ethics, which I believe played a fundamental role in convincing the public to turn to him. Both Kantian's and King's ideologies were committed to a single goal; the civil rights movement as a means to ensure complete freedom. In addition to the allusions used, MLK uses ethos to effectively communicate his agenda to clergymen. In this letter, King introduces it by first imploring the clergymen, and emphatically reiterates: “My dear fellow clergymen.” This quoted statement implies a commonality. Although clergymen called his action reckless and unjustified, King was keen to appeal to their emotions ethically by simply putting himself on par with the clergy. Using an ethical appeal by characterizing the competing clerics as fellow clergy, King was keen to develop a more nuanced approach to appealing to the clergy and once again denouncing their position that it was contributing to anarchy in the region. Additionally, King stated that he was in Birmingham to take a legitimate course and because of the continued injustice, he decided to risk everything for the people. Such sentiments have particular appeal in relation to the region's long-standing social imbalances and violence. Additionally, King relies on logos to appeal to his audience, who were initially unconvinced of his roadmap for addressing inequality in the region. However, King uses various logical appeals and explains certain historical figures that were in his.