Martin Luther King Speech Ethos Pathos Logos

614 Words2 Pages

Persuasion Throughout history there have been many struggles for freedom and equality. There was the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. There was the fight against government censorship in Argentina, spoken against by Luisa Valenzuela. And there was the struggle for women's equality in politics, aided by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Of the three, Martin Luther King Jr was the most persuasive due to his use of rhetorical language, ethos, and pathos. Kings use of rhetorical devices throughout his speech allows him to clearly and efficiently make points. He uses hypophora on line 69: “…There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality;we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies...cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cites.” King has effectively taken a question a listener would have and answers it convincingly. Since Valenzuela’s story is a narrative, she does not use rhetorical devices. Roosevelt less effectively uses hypophora on paragraph 1” Women …show more content…

He reminds you how he too has been affected by physical violence“… we must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence… we must rise to majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”(MLK lines 59-61) His use of the word “we” makes the listener feel his connection to the issue. Again, since Valenzuela’s story is a narrative about a character named “Juan”, her relation to the issue is never developed. On paragraph 3 Roosevelt admits that she never ran for political office and only heard the problems from other women “ From all over the United States, women from both camps have come to me and their experiences practically the same…” Roosevelt's lack of first hand experience with the issue, makes her less persuasive than

Open Document