<span>The Road Not Taken The Poem - eNotes.com</span>
Answer:
The best answer to the question: What type of figurative language is "It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler´s Germany. But I am sure that, if O had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal", would be, Allusion.
Explanation:
This particular excerpt comes from Martin Luther King´s "Letter from Brimigham Jail" when Dr. King is being accused of injustice in his attempt at aiding the cause for the Civil Rights Movement. The speech that is born from his time in jail, is probably one of the most literary-rich texts ever written, with a lot of figurative language having been used by Dr. King, in his attempt to sway people, and convince them to see, the righteousness of his cause. Figurative language is a technique in literature, and writing, that serves as a means to indirectly express a specific purpose, but through subtle, and sometimes hidden, symbols, words, images, or other such techniques. Figurative language seeks to engage the creative and interpretive mind of an audience or reader and to stimulate their capacity to feel moved by the messages being sent through the senses. In this excerpt, Dr. King uses a particular figurative language device called Allusion, which is literally a device in which the writer uses historical data, facts and stories, in order to convey a specific message to the audience. By mentioning Hitler, and Nazi Germany, Dr. King alludes to the American people to compare the two cases: the African American Civil Rights cause, and the situation of the Jews unjustly punished by the Nazis, and helps Americans to have a historical reference that will convince them of the need to support the Civil Rights cause.
