Letter From Birmingham Jail Rhetorical Analysis

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Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life.
What would a man not pay for living?”. In this he is saying that if you are not free, you are not living. Freedom is the one thing everyone wants and the one thing two iconic men, Martin Luther King and Franklin D. Roosevelt, fought for. Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms Speech” are similar through the use of metaphors, methods of pathos and logos, and the ongoing theme of freedom.
Both of these writings rely on their literary devices to help the reader further understand the points being made. King uses a metaphor when discussing his hopes for justice, “...the dangerously structured dams that …show more content…
Although this passage utilizes pathos in the beginning, it is mainly uses logos due because it is logical that America relies on other countries. Both of the texts use pathos and logos in an efficient way to make the audience see their main points, and to reside with them. This was a method in which both writers used to influence America with their beliefs.
Both MLK and FDR used the theme of freedom as their main point. King was explaining that as a country people need to stand up for themselves, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”(). After everything they have been through, they now know that as victims, they need to demand their rights. Freedom is what they are demanding, and is the central topic of the letter.
Roosevelt’s, has the same need,
“The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for
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