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HIGH AND LOW IMAGERY USED IN LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAILVictor MartinFigurative LanguageFigurative Language is used by writers to produce images in the readers mind and to express ideas in a fresh, vivid, and imaginative way.

Imagery Imagery refers to adjectives that have been used to enhance the reader's visual on the situation that is being presented.High ImageryLow Imagery

High ImageryHigh imagery is usually referred to hills, the heavens, the good, or even things above the average mind.

Low ImageryLow imagery usually relates to things underneath the good. Low imagery could include darkness, magma, or even deep ocean depths.

High/Low Imagery ExamplesThe high and low imagery in Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail occurs in biblical images, such as mountains and valleys. Here are some examples of this from the piece:Paragraph 10: dark depths of prejudice . . . majestic heights of understandingParagraph 14: abyss of despairParagraph 24: like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light . . .Paragraph 27: the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignityParagraph 43: the dark mountain of disappointmentParagraph 47: those great wells of democracyParagraph 50: dark clouds of racial prejudice . . . deep fog . . . radiant stars

Example 1 Paragraph 38Martin Luther King Jr. SaysWhere were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeonsof complacency to thebright hillsof creative protest?

ExplanationKing questions his audience about why Governor Wallace did nothing to support the black people when they were injured by white police officers and others that inflicted harm on them.

The Effect CreatedKing describes complacency and inaction todark dungeons, while protesting has been described and visualized asbright hills.The quote takes place in different forms of rhetorical questions, expressing an emotional appeal to the audience in order to see how crude the people in the South are to black people, and how they need support and justice for equality, but certainly not from bruises and making them weary.Analytical ConclusionKing want his audience to feel the need of letting go harm and fear that pertain to the dungeon that leads to uncritical satisfaction for their goals, and create a better way to achieve their actions through a peaceful and creative way for protesting unity and freedom for American Blacks.Example 2 Paragraph 16Martin Luther King Jr. SaysTo put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: 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.

ExplanationKing is explaining that the law is focused more on the unfair terms of segregation, instead of having its focal point on God and unity for all people.The crimes that people do should not be focused on race, but on the type of crime they have committed. The Effect CreatedKings logos throughout this statements clearly dismisses such a charge as simplistic. Taking for granted that his audience accepts the validity of Christian morality, he insists that one should apply this sense of morality towards the worlds complications.This logical argument is an implicit use of pathosDr. Kings argument empowers the individual to be diligent of injustice in the world, and to have that be his guide, rather than relying on socially dictated platitude, such as the law is the law.Analytical ConclusionDr. Kings argument empowers the individual to be conscientious of injustice in the world, and to let that be his guide, rather than relying on socially dictated truisms like the law is the law.

Example 3 Paragraph 27Martin Luther King Jr. SaysNow is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from thequicksandof racial injustice to the solid rockof human dignity.

ExplanationKing wants the black people to relieve themselves from the troubling problem of inequality and begin to set forth on making this nation sustainable for all types of people.The Effect CreatedUsing a comparison found in nature, he also compares injustice to loose soil likequicksand, while human dignity is described assolid rock.The use of logical and emotional appeal gives Kings audience a form of depth of what to think about achieving their goal for rejecting racism and ask for freedom nonviolently.Analytical ConclusionKings metaphors make the problem simplistic to his people in order to give them the goal that is needed to make equality not just a dream, but as a solid rock that will permanently shape the future of America forever.People struggling in the quicksand should view their ideas and created a form of democracy to show freedom and the will that is needed to apply force for unity that will lead them through, but in a form of nonviolence.Example 4 Paragraph 50Martin Luther King Jr. Says"Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.ExplanationKing is concluding to his audience that prejudice and racism will soon end, once the colored people have gained their rights for equality.The stars will brighten for a peaceful and kind future, and let their dark past be a historical event that will never be forgotten.

The Effect CreatedDr. King combines many different juxtapositions into one long metaphorical statement.He compares prejudice to lowdark cloudsand adeep fog that covers the land, while love and brotherhood are described as highradiant starsthatshine above the atmospherewithscintillating beauty.He also creates an ethical and emotional appeal to the audience in order to give action and passion for this type of situation. As a writer, he gives hope for a better future towards his audience, and uses visual diction to make them understand what he wants, and what they probably want, too.Analytical ConclusionKings hope for the future resembles radiant stars of tomorrow that come in contact with the past of sorrow and vulnerability in order to create a more quintessential lifestyle that is suitable to all types of people, making America greater in unity and diversity, but lesser in chauvinism and bigotry.

Example 5 Paragraph 10Martin Luther King Jr. SaysJust as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

ExplanationHe implies that proceeding without tension is going to leave men in the dark depths of prejudice and racism. It is a passive, implicit warning that addresses segregation without tension that would not only be ineffective, but dangerous.But in order to put a stop to this men should all reach the zenith that leads to the brotherhood and friendship of everyone, without limiting themselves to just one group of people.

The Effect CreatedKing describes prejudice and racism as being dark and low while considering understanding and brotherhood to be stately high. He also uses an interesting metaphor by comparing the civil rights protesters to nonviolent gadflies. These are types of flies that fly quickly between different areas and annoy livestock or people. He also refers back to other metaphors oftensionandbondageas he sets up the antithetical metaphor structure.Analytical ConclusionThe statement of dark depths of prejudicemajestic heights of understanding is a use of an emotional appeal to pathos, because it gives his audience a relation of similar value to his visual text.Because racism is malevolent and inappropriate to others, it can be contrasted with something dark and dreary like a disregarded, low laying depth that represents sorrow and hatred for others.To overcome this fall, King gives reasoning that people of all color should reach the limits of understanding their differences between each other and create a future of equality and diversity that leads to majestic heights.In Conclusion. . .Martin Luther King Jr.'s rhetorical strategy of high and low imagery was very effective in communicating to his audience. In the piece, King uses these forms of imagery as a key component in comparisons to create a more detailed and vivid description for his audience to connect with him, but in an informal method.His use of this strategy shows the importance between the things he compares, especially with the rhetorical terms of metaphors and antithesis.He uses the high and low imagery in contrast often to emphasize meaning and emotionally appeal to the audience through vivid images created by his word choice.