Mlk and Justice

Every human is born with natural rights. Weather it’s freedom of speech, equality in dignity, it is given to naturally. These rights have often been violated and are not always enforced the way it should be. During the fifties and sixties, segregation in occurred in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. writes the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” to express his views against segregation. Julia Alvarez writes “A Genetics of Justice” to describe her parents early life living under a dictatorship in Dominican Republic. Malala Yousafzai’s speech “A World At School” expresses her views on education for girls. These three texts share a common claim such that some people don’t achieve the justice that they deserve.

In the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, King includes a metaphor on page 9 which says, “They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.” King uses this metaphor to describe the courageous people who had become a nonconformist to join as an active partner in the struggle for freedom. King is proud of these nonconformists that had suffered all for the justice of the African Americans. This metaphor advances King’s views of these people by comparing them to carving a tunnel of hope to a mountain of disappointment. At the time, King is disappointed in what the Christian church had become.

King uses imagery and a pathos appeal to talk about the many ways people suffered for justice. King strongly believes in human rights and everyone is eligible for anything. He uses an emotional appeal to show readers these hardships. “They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as “dirty nigger-lovers.” King uses pathos to let the reader feel sympathy to further understand how these people fought for their freedom and justice.

In “A Genetics of Justice”, Alvarez talks about her parents early life living under a dictatorship. Living under a dictatorship is already seeping into violating human rights and justice. “…my mother was now doubly revolted by this cold-blooded monster.”. Alvarez’s mother thought this dictator Generalisimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was a famous movie star because she wasn't aware of all the terrible things Trujillo did. After she found out, she referred Trujillo to a “cold-blooded monster”. Trujillo slaughtered eighteen thousand Haitians even though he himself was a Haitian. This action violated the rights of many people. Alvarez says “…my parent were still living in the dictatorship inside their own heads.”. She uses personification to express her parents’ experience with the dictatorship