Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is a very powerful piece of literature that really grasps the attention of his audience. He speaks with a lot of emotion and frustration as he writes about the problems of segregation in the United States. He inflicts anger and sympathy in his readers and really gives us incite on the difficulties of being a colored person in America.

Letter from Birmingham Jail was originally written in response to eight clergymen who wrote to king opposing his public protests and felt he should take care of his concerns in court. On June 12, 1963 the Letter became published and a second audience was able to read the essay and gain a deeper understanding of racial segregation in America. The broad audience of readers was surely what king wanted out of writing what he says is the longest letter he’s ever written.

King wrote this letter to justify his actions in Birmingham, and why he and several members of his staff engaged in a non violent protest. He explains that segregation is wrong and needs to be changed; he pleads that the black community cannot wait any longer for change and something needs to be done immediately or the protest will eventually become violent as history has proven. He says his civil disobedience not only justified but has a responsibility to disobey unjust laws in order to make a change in our society. Throughout the reading he tells us how deep of an emotional effect segregation has on the black community. He gives us examples like explaining to your daughter or son why they cant go to the amusement park or why they have to sit at the back the bus. These examples really make understand how hard it would be to get treated this way, and why these laws are so unjust.

Throughout Letter from Birmingham jail King makes a lot of comparisons of his actions to the actions of those in the bible. He compares his protest to the prophets of the eighth century who carried the gospel of Jesus to around Rome preaching his word far beyond their village. He sees this as similar to what he is doing protesting to stop segregation. He also compares the crucifixions of Jesus to his getting arrested and accepting punishment for the cause of good. He makes a similar comparison when he talks about Socrates getting poisoned for his new ideas. All of these men were condemned for what they believed, but in the end worked out to change people’s beliefs.

King makes his point very clear in this letter; he makes sure he connected with his reader by using examples and telling us his personal experiences with segregation. He makes it known that they can no longer wait for racial equality. He speaks respectfully and never comes across with aggression or by threats of violence. He simply states his point and makes sure the reader can relate to what he is saying.

Eighner begins by telling us a little bit about how he had always had an interest in dumpsters and even gave us the history of the word. He says “it is a proprietary word belonging to the Dempster Dumpster company” revealing to us even before he had began scavenging as he likes to call it, he had done research about dumpsters. Eighner goes on telling us how he began dumpster diving and we quickly begin to realize he is not ashamed of it and actually takes a kind of pride in what he does. He speaks to us in a very formal way almost as if he were giving a presentation or was a teacher in front of a class room. It almost feels as though you are reading a how to book on dumpster diving.

Eighner is trying to reach people of any age and background. His audience is people that have no experience living on the streets; People that may be disgusted by the thought of getting food and necessities of life from dumpsters. He’s mostly trying to reach the more wealthy members of our society who look down on those who are scavengers.

The purpose is to try to give people incite on how wasteful our society has become. So many of us throw out perfectly good things everyday such as food and clothes without even thinking about it. We sometimes forget how fortunate we are to be able to go out and buy whatever we need for everyday life. Some of us can go out and purchase so much stuff, that we throw things out that could have still been used by those who are in need. He makes a point about college students who return home for reading breaks and will throw out perfectly good food and condiments because they feel it’ll go bad before they return. This is especially true for the students that are still living off of their parent’s dollar; they have no concern about buying more food when they return and would rather not take a chance on food that may go bad. These students are wasteful out of ignorance and carelessness and because for so many of them its daddy’s money they are more careless and have no concerns about where there next meal comes from.

Eighner talks about what he has learned from dumpster diving, most important what is safe to eat. He explains “eating safely from the dumpsters involves three principals using the senses and common sense to evaluate the condition of the found materials, knowing the dumpsters of a given area and checking them regularly, and seeking to always to find the answer to the question why was this discarded”. He makes it quite clear to us that he looks at Dumster diving almost like a career. Hes trying to minimize his consumption on the world by reusing other peoples trash. He feels in the end it is the scavengers who are going to get the last laugh and maybe he is right?