Essays on Nonviolent Resistance

This paper will present an analysis of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream speech.” The analysis will focus on the five key elements of the five elements of dramatistic pentad. These are act, agency, agent, scene, and purpose.

Act:

The “I have a dream” speech was a speech that sought to fight for civil rights liberties and freedoms for oppressed Americans. Black Americans had suffered discrimination for centuries in the country. The speech began with a history of the suffering of the black people in America. It also gave an excellent portrayal of the struggles the black people ...

In his Letter from A Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. argues that nonviolent resistance should be seen as a vital part of conflict transformation, and he focuses on the way it has been used throughout history by non-state actors such as social movements and grassroots organizations. MLK characterizes nonviolent resistance a process of social change through active nonviolence. The primary point of the letter was to respond to the “Call for Unity” that white members of the church created in Alabama a few days earlier. In it, they stated that they were aware of the injustices that were present in ...

On December 10, 1942, Edward Raczynski of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile sent a note to the Allies concerning the Nazi’s extermination of Jews in German-occupied Poland (Finch 30). Seven days later, the United Nations issued a joint declaration describing the events of the Holocaust, including the so-called Nuremberg Laws. These laws were announced at the annual Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg in September 15, 1935. Their effect and intent were predominantly anti-semitic, making widespread discrimination against Jews legally binding. Some examples of these regulations were the closure of all Jewish-owned businesses, the restriction of ...

The suffering of others can take its toll on everyone involved - both the oppressed and the oppressor. In Martin Luther King's essay "Three Ways of Meeting Oppression," King notes that people can be disheartened by oppression, but they must not let these hardships get them down. The perseverance of this oppressed person that King describes can also be found in the elephant of George Orwell's short story "Shooting an Elephant." In this story, we see an elephant refusing to die, even as the reluctant police officer continues to shoot it. This is representative of the oppressed peoples' refusal ...

In this important essay, Martin Luther King identifies three ways of meeting an oppressive situation which was the case where the Negroe was suffering in the Deep South of the 1950’s and the 1960’s. He is circumspect and direct about the terrible situation faced by the Negro in the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana as typical examples where arbitrary violence and oppression apart from humiliation was the order of the day where the negroe was concerned. King identifies three ways in which one may meet this oppressive stance, the first is to do nothing and acquiesce ...

Pros and cons of Affirmative Action

Affirmative action refers to the general agenda which was started in the 1960s. It was brought forward in order to stop the discrimination experienced by women, the ethnic minorities and groups without representatives. The primary purpose of affirmative action was to improve the educational and employment opportunities for this minority groups as their rights. Affirmative action in itself has its advantages as well as its own disadvantages and therefore arguments can be brought up from the topic. This is because it is a complicated and difficult subject to handle since it brings up emotions and gives rise to conflicts ...