Martin Luther King gave the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech in August 1963. Even after almost 40 years, it is still considered one of the greatest and inspirational speeches ever. King uses many techniques in his speech in order to make it effective and convincing to the audience. He uses the three rhetorical modes, which are; pathos, ethos and logos in addition to rhetorical questions. In his speech, King uses pathos, which is one of the rhetorical modes that employs human feelings. He tries to make the listeners loath racism instead of hating Negros. He used several powerful adjectives and metaphors such as; “crippled” and “chained”. By using these words, King is trying to make the audience sympathize with black people and understand the disastrous conditions they are living with. He uses this method several times in his speech such as mentioning that children of color are “stripped of their selfhood” by “signs stating ‘For Whites Only’”. This all helps make the listeners feel ashamed and disgraced by these actions. …show more content…
These methods helped King to make the listeners believe that white people have lied to the Negroes. King mentions in his speech that when America was founded, “the Constitution and Declaration of Independence” expressed that every person would be treated the same despite of their appearance. However, this promise has been broken by the white people nowadays. This makes the audience think about how morally wrong racism is and how they have deceived black people by not committing to their
The iconic speech “I have a Dream”, originally named “Normalcy, Never Again”, is dubbed to be one of the greatest speech of all time. It was expertly delivered by civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The speech was delivered during the March on Washington on the 28th of August, 1963. Dr King urgently called for the end of discrimination and racial prejudice between the Americans with different colour. He delivered his speech with finesse, inspiring and persuading his audience through the use of written, audio codes and body language. The written techniques Dr King utilized were repetition and metaphor and in addition, audio codes, which were volume and pace.
On August 28th, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke to roughly twenty-five thousands people attending the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. In Dr. King’s speech, “I Had a Dream”, he uses rhetorical devices to convey that all people are created equal and to educate the importance of the Civil Rights Movement.
Dr. King is an emotional, inspiring, and strong speaker. His " I Have A Dream" speech tugs a deep root war of emotions in every American’s heart; therefore, this speech is the perfect display of pathos. Even though pathos overwhelm logo and ethos, they are also very much present in his speech. On August 28, 1963 Dr. King made his way to Washington Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to deliver his speech to his fellow Americans. Dr. King commands his speech during an ironic time in American history.
King then uses the appeal known as pathos. Pathos is a Greek word meaning 'suffering ' or 'experience, ' and it appeals to the reader 's emotions, utilizing story, sensory-based details and vivid language. Throughout Dr King’s letter then showed how the African American they were suffering in the hands of the Whites. An a good example is “...when you suddenly find your tongue-twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children.”(844) Dr. King then used a child because he knew that child is a child no matter the color or race they are innocent of their crimes and nobody wants to see a child cry. Dr. King then went on to talk about the how the African American are been tormented each day and night. “…you spend night after night in your car because no motel will accept you. Day and night you are humiliated by nagging signs; when your first name is “nigger” and middle name is “boy”….(845). He described cruel behaviors of police towards blacks in jails. He said that, “Hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brother and sisters and vast majority of twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty” (844). He went further to explain that there is the need for change to happen. This is a clear
Martin Luther King did not know that his “I Have a Dream” speech would still be iconic 50 years later. In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. He was facing the problem of racial injustice for himself and everyone like him. He needed to create a speech that everyone could and would understand, could learn from, and could draw inspiration from. He had to address blacks and whites, he had to say things that everyone could relate to and he had speak in a way that he get the
King tries to reason with his audience to make them realize that what they are doing is morally wrong even though at the time it may have been legally allowed.”Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust” (3). He demonstrated how the laws that were in place at that moment affected in multiple levels the African Americans,
King peacefully pleads for racial tolerance and the end of segregation by appealing to the better side of white Americans. His attempt to persuade America about the justice of his cause, and to gain support for the civil rights movement, was emotionally moving. He spoke to all races, but his rhetoric was patriotic, and culturally similar to, and focused on African-Americans. He was able to make practical use of a history many Americans are proud of. The use of repetition reinforced his words, making it simpler and more straightforward to follow.
On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King made his famous “I Have a dream” speech on the Lincoln Memorial after the March on Washington. He delivered this speech to millions of people blacks and whites. This is one of the greatest speeches because it has many elements like pathos, logos, ethos, repetition, assonance, and consonance.
On the third Monday in January, we celebrate a man who helped change the course of history in the way people treat others who are different than them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American clergyman and civil rights leader for who was made famous by the glorious speech “I Have a Dream”. (Norton 1152) In this speech, he spoke of a future where Caucasians and African Americans would no longer be segregated and to not be judged by the color of our skin but to be known together as equal. During his speech, whether he did it purposely or accidently, he used rhetorical devices to help deliver his message to his audience. In the speech, Dr. King used ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to his audience in an ethical, logical and emotional
On August 28th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous and powerful speech I Have a Dream, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The purpose of his speech was to fight for the civil rights, equality, and to stop the discrimination against African-American people. His use of imagery, repetition, and metaphor in his speech had created an impact with his audience. King used the three rhetorical devices, ethos, pathos and logos to help the audience understand the message of his speech.
"American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream." American Rhetoric: The Power of Oratory in the United States. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. .
In his speech, King uses different types of rhetorical guidelines. He uses them to show his points in a better and easier way to understand .At the beginning he successfully uses a mythos. A mythos has a deep explanatory or symbolic resonance for the audience. In mentioning the Emancipation Proclamation he shows that our ancestors signed a contract, in which all human beings are created equal, and therefore should be treated in the same way as others. He also visualizes his ideas with visual examples, which everybody can understand. “America has given the black population a bad check, which has come back marked insufficient funds”( I Have a Dream)
For example, whites had sympathy for African Americans and parents had sympathy for their children. The way that King tells his speech takes the focus off of race and reestablishes it on the aspiration of a world without racism. “.by making his audience no longer hate Negroes and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world.” (L., Anson). Dr. King made the audience sympathize with African Americans, helping the audience realize that racist people and biased ideas caused the true dilemma of discrimination.
King said, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds”.” I thought this was a great analogy because after he talked about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence related to equality for everyone it helped explain further just how bad the segregation was and he compared it to something anyone could experience. This really made me think about how bad things were but not only that, how it can still be related to today. It also made me upset that they felt like they were “given a bad check” by America especially since it is stated in the Constitution that all men are created equal.
King begins his speech by referencing important historical documents such as the Constitution of the United States and the Emancipation Proclamation. This is emphasized when he states, ”Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation...But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”. Which shows how even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed the African Americans from slavery, they still are not free because of segregation. He then transitions to the injustice and suffering that the African Americans face. He makes this