What are examples of figurative language and explain the meaning of letter from Birmingham jail?

Answer 1

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses comparative tools like metaphor and simile, along with juxtaposition and resulting irony to explain and justify proactive, aggressive non-violence to further African American equality, standing in direct contrast to the "que sera sera" attitude espoused by the peers that prompted this noted rhetorical oeuvre. Dr. King likens himself and his cohort though simile to the dispersed Hebrews of the 8th century B.C. and to the Apostle Paul in the way they spread divine messages of morality. He uses metaphor and irony to evoke the injustice of restrictive Jim Crow policies and the resulting "airtight cage of poverty" (metaphor) "in the midst of an affluent society" (irony). The two devices are used separately; Dr. King equates segregation to a "disease" earlier in the letter, and uses irony to describe the successful spread of equality in Africa and Asia and the creeping advances made in the United States.