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The following are the literary devices that the philosophy authors used to convey their philosophical ideas:

Similes

Lao Tzu employed the use of similes throughout his poetry when comparing various traits of a noble person with the characteristics of water under different environments. The similes create a clear picture in the readers mind. Additionally, Martin Luther King uses similes to compare justice and righteousness to the flow of water. He further uses a simile to compare the pace at which African and Asian countries are gaining their independence where as the United States black minority is struggling for the segregation policies to be brought to an end. The use of similes in both these texts was meant to make their descriptions of people more vivid.

Metaphor

Metaphors are phrases used to compare the distinct traits of two distinct objects. Lao Tzu‘s has not used metaphors in his poems. He instead used similes to convey his message. Martin Luther King has employed the use of metaphors on several occasions. For instance, he compared the moderate Whites as a dam that was inhibiting the progress of America towards being a just and fair society.

Allusion

Allusion is the reference to a well known event that took place in the past. I t can be a bibilical reference or just a historical reference. Martin Luther King has used allusion in more than on instance to drive a point home. For example, he referred to Socrates when arguing that mental tension was necessary in order to create a situation where members of the community were both rational and logical in the way that they acted and thought. Again, Martin Luther King used allusion when he referred to Adolf Hitler killing of the Jews in order to demonstrate that the existence of a law does not make it necessarily a just law. Plato also used the allusion by referring to traditional these that has been done by Homer and Hesiod. He also used the allusion when he referred to the biblical story of Meshcak, Shardrack, and Abednizego who defied the orders of King Nebuchadnezzar in regard to the worship of his god.

Personification

Personification is a literary device that is used to attribute humanlike traits to objects. Martin Luther king used personification in his letter on numerous occasions. For example, he referred to the disappointment of the black community as being engulfed in a shadow of disappointment; this was after the black community realized that the merchants in Birmingham had broken their promise to end segregation by removing racist signs on their stores. Lao Tzu also uses personification when he says that water does not contend with all its beneficiaries.

Juxtaposition

This is the literary device which applies in a case where there are two opposing views of a situation. Martin Luther King has employed the use of juxtaposition in his letter. For instance, when he describes that he is not a law breaker because it his moral duty to disobey laws that he termed to be unjust, he also stresses that just laws should be obeyed and law breakers should expect to be punished for breaking the law. Moreover he juxtaposes the complacent Negro community on one hand and the extremist Negro community on the other hand.

Irony

Martin Luther King brought out an aspect of irony when he was describing how the majority create laws that are binding to the minority but that cannot be enforced against the majority just like was the case for segregation laws that only applied to the Negro community. It is as well ironical that Martin Luther King chooses laws to obey and those laws to disobey based on whether they were just laws or disobey the loans even though he was a man of respect and integrity.

Rhetorical questions

A rhetorical question is one that does not need an answer from the reader but is expected to stimulate some deliberation on the subject matter o the rhetorical question. Martin Luther king has extensively utilized rhetorical questions in his letter with the aim of making the readers agree to his statements for example, at the end of the letter Martin Luther king poses a rhetorical question that implies he has no other option but to write long letters in prison so as to avoid boredom.

Imagery

This refers to giving vivid descriptions of places, events or people in order to create a picture in the mind of readers. In Martin Luther king’s letter there are several examples of imagery. For example, Martin Luther King explains in details how he travelled through much of Massachusetts and particularly the churches in Birmingham. He also describes the life in the cells for the demonstrators who were arrested for marching.

Onomatopoeia

This is the use of words that represent sound from different objects. Martin Luther King used a number of onomatopoeia in his letter to the southern American clergy. For example, he uses the word groan to describe the sadness that the Negro community have as a result of the apartheid.

Alliteration

Alliteration refers to an arrangement where two words follow each other and share a similar consonant. For example in Lao Tzu’s poem the word his is followed by the word heart.

Repetition

Repetition is the use of a word or a phrase more than once in a document. For example, Martin Luther King repeated the word postponement to illustrate the numerous time that they had been forced by circumstances to postpone direct non violent in Birmingham.

The strengths of literary style used

Martin Luther King’s letter has a personal side to it thus making it easier for readers to grasp the philosophical ideas being conveyed with relative ease. The letter also has a free structure and largely informal language thus making it the most convenient literary style for the author to convey his philosophical ideas.

Lao Tzu employed the use of poetry to convey his philosophical idea. Poetry was a good and artistic literary style through which some philosophical ideas were conveyed. Poetry was easier for readers to read and understand unlike the prose literary style. Poems also require literary devices such as imagery and similes in order to form mental pictures in the mind of readers as well as making poems more memorable. Thus poetry is a good literary style even though its interpretation may b challenging to both readers and scholars at time.

Dialogue as a literary style was employed by Plato in conveying his philosophical ideas to the masses. The reason for this preference of writing form may have been because during Plato’s time elites and scholars would normally have debates on philosophical issues. This form of literary style is not as hard as poetry to understand and interpret.

Weaknesses of the literary styles used

The use of non standard genres of philosophy makes it difficult for scholars as well as other interested readers to read and understand such philosophical works, for example certain poems and dialogues that date back to renaissance or Plato and have not been updated to reflect changes in language.

Poems written by foreign philosophers are much harder to translate. Their translation may lead to misleading errors if mistakes are made during the process of transfusion. It may thus take a long time before the interpreters are finally able to get the exact translation. For example, initially the poem by Lao Tzu was available in Chinese ideograms only. It took time to translate it as well as energy because it was a challenging task.

The dialogue genre by Plato is by far the hardest form of literal styles. The degree of the challenge will vary form on person to another so it should not be assumed to be standard. The dialogue literary style is hard because the terms and language used is not modern English. This implies that the documents language has not yet been updated.

Selecting the best literary genre

The literary genre to be used for a particular philosophical work depends on the content of that work. For example, the best genre for a short philosophical work that has rhythm and all other aspects of literary devices should be a poem. This is because it has rhyming words and is brief. Moreover, a long statement or story would be best suited for a dialogue instead of poetry. The best genre for long and complex philosophy ideas is letters. This is because it letters provide a continuous flow of information with minimal interruption.

Challenges in interpretation

The poetry of Lao Tzu was challenging to interpret this is because it was originally written in Chinese language and thus the accuracy of the translation was not perfect. However, Lao Tzu’s poetry was translated in English and can be easily read and understood. The two other forms of literary genres have no difficulty in interpreting. This implies that it is easy to interpret read and understand philosophical works in the form of letters and dialogues.