Thematic interpretation on Letter from a Birmingham Jail----- I receive a C+ ... I would like to make my paper better and earn an A. My teacher said my thesis is not clear and concise, and I just need help please... :/ and it's suppose to be MLA format...
The Greatest Injustice
On April 12, 1963 Martin Luther King was arrested for violating Alabama's law against mass public demonstrations, without a permit. On the day of his arrest, eight white Birmingham clergy members wrote a criticism that was published in the Birmingham News. "However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely" (Alabama Clergymen). King writes his response to defend his organization's actions in which the letter is also an appeal to not only the white but also the black American society. It is also invoked to the social, political, and religious community, and the whole of American society; to encourage desegregation and the support of solidarity and equality among all Americans without stratifications according to racial differences. One of King's most important yet well extended arguments is the distinction between just and unjust laws. "One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).
King states "I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all. A person has a legal and moral responsibility to obey the just laws; conversely, one has a moral responsibility to obey unjust laws "(Letter from a Birmingham Jail).He also makes a further distinction in the letter with Thomas Aquinas, to who King now refer as; "An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). With these definitions King has invoked a claim which he developed earlier in the letter, that segregation can damage a human soul and personality. Which can also relate to the earlier statement of "When your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs." "(Letter from a Birmingham Jail). As you can see these are powerful points presented by King that can deprive the African American society. "It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail); King expresses earlier in the reading one of the most powerful paragraphs by stressing the unjust to the African Americans. "When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). This particular moment of King's letter is where the understanding of the disparagement is emphasized by demonstrating events taking place in his personal life.
King then redefines "Unjust Laws" in the second phase of argument, by a more democratic argument. "Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself .This is sameness made legal" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). He then explains furthermore by giving examples such as being denied the right to vote, wherefore it was never enacted in the law. He also states the methods used in Alabama to prevent the Blacks from voting and becoming registered voters; although the majority population were Blacks in some counties. King knows the First Amendment is the Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and Petition; however when the majority are preserving segregation, he gets arrested. He is right in this case, because the First Amendment clearly states the five freedoms an American Citizen have as rights, and as a citizen he as well should have those rights; but since the laws are unjust parading is only allowed with permits, as if he will be given a permit. "Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). King then leads to the Civil Disobedience; in which he states "academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). After he demonstrates segregation laws are unjust, it complies with his opening of "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).
This disobedience is further argued in the letter with especially three main arguments. "An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).King is stating that people's conscious can tell them when they are doing something illegal, however in often, the penalty is accepted , so that the consciences of other people can be alarmed of the injustice and wrong doing going on. He supports his argument by displaying examples of; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who did not comply with the law of Nebuchadnezzar and willingly rather face the brutal penalty, of being exposed to hungry lions just so they will accept the unjust laws of the Roman Empire. Another example King displays is with Hitler "We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). Wherefore, King displays the message you can either choose to accept the unjust, or exploit for the just; which King expresses he would have exploit for the unjust by comforting the Jewish people and also believes by his religious morals he would of helped to protect the Jews. It was a good analogy between Germany during Hitler's reign and America during slavery and segregation.
One of King's most important yet well extended arguments is the distinction between just and unjust laws. "One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust" (Letter from a Birmingham Jail). "Letter from Birmingham Jail" can be said to be the contrast between just and unjust laws; in which he quotes Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas stated that "an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law." Throughout the letter King repeats many basic arguments such that he arouses the emotions that racial injustice was not tolerable. He describes how humiliating the name callings were to the blacks, as well the segregation. To conclude strongly, King ends his paragraph by supporting his argument for nonviolent civil disobedience and achieving not only freedom but as well as justice; he then, appeals to both religious and philosophical examples of such disobedience by a way of attempting to justify it further.
