Similarities between Martin Luther Kings Letter from...

Even the most cursory analysis of Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. and A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift reveals glaring differences between the two essays. Surprisingly, a side-by-side comparison also yields many similarities between the two works. The most obvious similarity between the two essays is the overarching theme of the subject matter. In both essays, the writers address deeply-entrenched social injustices. For example, in Letter From Birmingham Jail, King, in his highly-impassioned and evocative style, submits a powerful essay that addresses racial segregation in the American South during the 1950s and 1960s. In his letter, King mentions that the brutal history of the American Negros†¦show more content†¦In spite of the radical differences between Swifts and Kings literary devices and the forthrightness of their solutions to socially-unjust laws and practices, there remain many similarities between the two essays that need to be explored further. King made several references to Christian Biblical stories, especially from the Gospels, in Letter From Birmingham Jail. Kings letter takes on a religious, almost-grandiose proportion with King likening his quest for racial equality to a Christian mission: I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages...I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown (1). While Swift certainly does not adopt the persona of a religious man in A Modest Proposal, his essay also contains religious elements, albeit comments made in an underhanded jest. Swift makes a few jibes at Roman Catholicism, stating that, if his proposal were implemented, a collateral benefit would be that, due to the higher reproduction rate of Roman Catholics in Ireland, the kingdom would be made a better place by lessening the number of Papists LAST NAME 4 among us. Swift extends such condescension to