MLK Jr.

Brooke Avery

Analysis of Martin Luther King Jr. and “Nonviolent Resistance”

Martin Luther King Jr. promoted peaceful demonstrations and fought for equality without fists or rage. Because of this, he is considered a pioneer of the Civil Rights movement. Through his speeches and essays, King moved hundreds of people and persuaded them that his approach was the right and just way to gain equality for all. His essay, “Nonviolent Resistance” talks about the reasons why using nonviolence is the best approach. We can see through comparing it to the MAPP and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “How to Write with Style”, why “Nonviolent Resistance” stands out to readers. MAPP is an acronym for Message, Audience, Persona, and Purpose. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “How to Write with Style” describes the necessities that are needed in order to portray your own personal style in your writing. “Nonviolent Resistance” is effective because it clearly mirrors the MAPP and follows Vonnegut’s rules of style of writing accurately.

By looking at his past experience; being president of the SCLC, leading marches, delivering speeches, and even being arrested for what he believed was right, we understand that King had a strong passion behind what he wrote. This passion is important in your writing. Vonnegut says that in order to communicate your message most effectively when writing something, make sure that it’s something that you have a strong feeling for, “Find a subject you care about and which you in the heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element” (pg. 22). Martin Luther King uses this technique very effectively, especially in his final paragraph, “The way of nonviolence means a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. It may mean going to jail...It may even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price that a man must pay to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive”( pg.61). The last paragraph of the essay was compelling, conveying to the audience that he feels strongly about what he writes. King’s willingness to be a martyr for his cause is reflected by his readiness to go to prison, and even die for what he feels is right, and he lets his audience know this. When an audience recognizes that you firmly feel for what you’re writing, they’re more inclined to believe and listen to what you write.

In “Nonviolent Resistance” MLK is very aware that his audience consists of blacks and understands what they are working toward. We can see this when he states, “The Negro must work passionately and unrelentingly for full stature as a citizen, but he must not use inferior methods to gain it” (pg.261). In order to write effectively, you must correctly address your audience. To do this, you must know who your audience is, be aware of the content of what you’re writing to your audience, and use correct techniques in order to make the audience pay attention to you. Looking at this evidence, we see that King addresses the fact that blacks want citizenship. By doing this, King appealed to his audience more because he recognized what they want.

Another reason King’s essay is effective is because of the voice that he uses. Throughout the whole essay, he projects himself as a man who is strong and just. He’s not writing like he’s seeking vengeance, because he’s not. And he’s not writing like he has hatred, because he doesn’t. King writes like he is a Baptist Minister who is seeking equality, which he is, “The job of the negro is to show them that they have nothing to fear, that the Negro understands and forgives and is ready to forget the past. He must convince the white man that all he seeks is justice, for both himself and the white man” (pg.261). His writing reflects how he feels and what type of person he is, which the MAPP also refers to as writing with a persona. The persona is the voice of the essay. According to Create a Mapp, when deciding what type of persona you want to project, you have to think of the questions, What image of myself do I want to project, How can I establish my credibility, and what kind of language will be most effective?. King establishes his credibility to himself by writing through his own persona, which is also what Vonnegut says is the best way to go. In “How to Write with Style” Vonnegut says, “I myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am” (pg.23). King finds trust in who he has and uses that to tell us his message.

Throughout the whole essay, King makes it clear that his purpose is to persuade blacks to use nonviolence when demonstrating against the law. By telling us his purpose, he guides us to his message that he wants to express. According to the MAPP, the last essential piece of writing is the purpose which is the “action or thought you hope to elicit from your reader”. King clearly states it in one of his last paragraphs, “We will take direct action against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act. We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will do this peacefully, openly, cheerfully, because our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself” (Nonviolent Resistance). According to Vonnegut, this is very important, “Never include a sentence which does not either remark on character or advance the action” (pg.22). King’s essay is organized so that the whole time you read it, you understand what his purpose is. Every paragraph has a different point and ties to his main purpose.

We can see through the MAPP and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “How to Write with Style”, that King writes very effectively. King’s essay reflects the points of the MAPP and “How to Write with Style”. “Nonviolent Resistance” is a parallel to the points of the MAPP and also emulates Vonnegut’s main points, which are to write about something you care about, having a purpose in your writing, and to sound like the person you are. King’s writing in this essay is a good example of an effective style of writing.