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Martin luther kings appeals of ethos and pathos
American civil rights movement
American civil rights movement
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One of the greatest orator of all time is Martin Luther King because of the great speaking abilities he had. For example, he was excellent at using pathos. Pathos is when a speaker is able to appeal to the audience’s emotion. Four of the emotional reference in pathos are people, actions, events, and objects. Within each reference there is a positive and a negative orientation. For people there is saint or sinner. In actions there is virtue and vice. In the third reference, events, there is utopia and wasteland. And for the last reference, objects, there is idol and abomination. His ``I Have a Dream`` speech is where he best used pathos. Due to his great use of pathos in his ``I Have a Dream`` speech, it is the great speech of all time To …show more content…
He used both utopia and wasteland. His strongest use of utopia is evident when he talked about his dream. For example, he said “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."” As the speech went on he talked more about his dream about how he wanted there to be equality and desegregation between both blacks and whites. This is his most renown and most power use of pathos due to the fact that his movement was based on equality for Black Americans. So therefore, I believe that every single Black American could relate to his dream. For years Black Americans had suffered due to segregation and many dreamt of the day that they racial discrimination was no longer an issue. Furthermore, one can also see him used utopia when he said “[a]nd when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands…” As mentioned before I believe this a great use of pathos because Black Americans could relate to this dream. While he has a strong use of utopia, he also had a strong use of wasteland. This manifested when he stated the current situation that Black …show more content…
For idol he used the Constitution of the United States and the Delectation of Independence. When he said [t]his note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I believe that this a good use of pathos because in the Constitution of the United States it states that everyone should have these “unalienable rights”. I believe that everyone that was present at his speech could agree with these undeniable rights. On the contrary, when he stated “[l]et us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence…” I believe that he is using the “cup of bitterness and hatred as an abomination. I believe because he does not agree with the use violence to achieve their goals. I believe that African Americans could relate to this abomination because most blacks agreed with
Throughout both letters pathos is used to help shape the reader’s opinion towards the end goal of the author. In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, he writes about how disappointed he is with the actions of his fellow Americans, comparing it to past events
Pathos is the appeal to emotion and Malcolm X uses a lot of pathos in his speech. Before getting into specific lines of his speech that use pathos, Malcolm X has a great usage of pathos by repeating the line “the ballot or the bullet.” This line created a sense of urgency that his audience needed to do something now to create change. He uses this effectively throughout his speech. A specific part of his speech that uses pathos is when he mentions about the march in Washington. He said “He made a chump out of you. He made a fool out of you. He made you think you were going somewhere and you end up going nowhere but between Lincoln and Washington.” This is an example of pathos because of how he spoke this in a way to spark anger in his audience. He is appealing to their anger towards the injustice they faced from the white man. Malcolm X purpose of trying to spark anger is because anger is a way to get someone passionate about an issue and more likely to do something about it. Another specific part of his speech that uses pathos is when he begins saying that African-Americans have never seen democracy. His exact words are “We don’t see the American dream. We see the American nightmare.” Again this is a way to spark anger in his audience over the injustice they have faced. Malcolm X did not believe in violence, his intent was not to get his audience angry and react out in violence, but to vote for future. This is why he
His emotional appealing begins when he stated: “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.” And his emotional appealing continues and gets more effective when he describes the suffering life of black people who are suffering from racism and injustice:” when you take a country-cross drive and found it necessary to sleep night after night in the corner of automobile because no hotel would accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘white’ and ‘colored’”. This makes people want to join his case and mak...
He talks about how the emancipation is very important to us African Americans, but to other white people it was just a speech because it did not really involve them, so they really just did not care because it was not their history. As Americans, I feel we share the same history because it was just not the blacks that got everything passed for them, but it was also the whites because we all played a separate part with it. When issues like this come up I just look back on the elections of my president Obama. Every one said that us as African Americans we got him into office both times, but if the whole black population would of voted just for Obama he would not have won.... ...
King also uses pathos to effectively appeal to the reader’s emotions. The most effective usage of pathos is showing how segregation was hard on anyone no matter their age. He describes his interaction with his young daughter, “see tears well up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children” (King 2). This section is meant for you to see that even simple things are taken away just because of their skin color. The child is seen as innocent in all of this and they still are being punished for something they cannot control. King also uses another approach that focuses more on the horror that African Americans faced by white extremists, “vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers… drown your sisters and brothers… when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters” (King 2). No one in their right mind would want to endure any of this or have anyone they care about face what these people faced. This creates a sense of guilt and sympathy for the oppressed people. Although he shows many of the sad ways the African Americans were treated, he also uses pathos by creating inspiration for the people. His mother is quoted as saying, “You must never feel that you are less than anybody else. You must always feel that you are somebody.” (Historic World Leaders 3). This also can be attributed to emotions because it creates inspiration for the African Americans, but it also gives the reader some
Racism and equality was a major problem that dominated America and is still a major issue today. During Martin Luther King Jr.’s time, these problems were at its’ highest peak. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his revolutionary “I Have A Dream” speech in Lincoln Memorial Park. This speech demanded justice and equality for African Americans. King was one of many protesters who fought long and hard for equality and freedom to all Americans. His speech told the dreams of millions of Americans, demanding a free, equal, and just nation. In his speech, he stressed the idea of equality between colored and whites, and connected his pain with millions. Ethos, pathos, and metaphor are three of the elements that made Martin Luther
Speeches are a method of persuading people to do something. For Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, their speeches were to bring equality for the people of color. However, their approaches are different. Consequently, the effects may be different. An example of their contrasting differences is a speech from each, King’s “I Have a Dream” and X’s “The Black Revolution”. Their speeches used pathos, a central metaphor, and a warning, but was presented differently.
He states with quotes "Black young men being sent eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem".Pathos is used here wanting to make the audience feel guilty that there sending there sons to fight a war as well as give a country liberties that they dont have here at home that is what Mr.King uses to fuel his audience with anger towards the unjust
In Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail, pathos, ethos, and logos are vividly expressed throughout it. All three rhetorical devices are vital to the meaning of the letter; the most influential being pathos. MLK takes advantage of the human body’s strong response to emotion. It is illustrated in his appeal to empathy, exercised mainly through gruesome depictions; his call for action to his peers, as shown when he expresses his disappointment in them as they preserve order over justice; and his strategic use of pathos as a supporting effort for both ethos and logos arguments.
King uses in his speech is Pathos, which is the appeal to someone 's emotions or beliefs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. presented a strong feeling towards African-American people about how they were treated as equal individuals “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (King par. 3). Another example of pathos that Dr. King used was when he uses vocabulary and phrases, such as “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream” (King par. 12). He uses the appeal of emotion, especially the word of choice and diction to let his audience’s know what he would like to see in the
Alleged by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I Have A Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Dr. King said “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Meaning there shall be equality between one another. Dr. King grew up around pastors in a Baptist Church, so when he gave his speeches he sounded like a preacher. He was a well-educated person who graduated from Boston University and received his Doctorate degree. Plus he was a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race. Being a strong worker and having knowledge of civil rights made him more of a confident and convincing speaker. Therefore, In Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, he pointed out to African Americans, that in the near future the African Americans would have equal rights and liberty like all the other Caucasians have. In this speech I have found Dr. King using logos, ethos, and pathos to get his attention across about equality and to make his speech sound more effective. Out of the three rhetorical appeals I have found that Dr. King used ethos the most predominately followed by the second most effective, pathos, and how King is a convincing speaker to his 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) In one paragraph of his speech he mentions that the “black population has come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. but we refuse to believe, that the bank of justice is bankrupt and that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation” (316).
... oppression blacks faced. King’s appeal to ethos set the stage for other methods of persuasion. By building up this appeal, King was able to establish a common ground between himself and the audience. King delivered an effective appeal to pathos, which in turn evoked an emotional response from the viewers. King also used appeals to logic in order to reason with his audience. By appealing to all three rhetorical elements, pathos, logos, and ethos, King was able to effectively persuade and motivate the audience to achieve equality for all American citizens.
In Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, King makes use of an innumerable amount of rhetorical devices that augment the overall understanding and flow of the speech. King makes the audience feel an immense amount of emotion due to the outstanding use of pathos in his speech. King also generates a vast use of rhetorical devices including allusion, anaphora, and antithesis. The way that King conducted his speech adds to the understanding and gives the effect that he wants to rise above the injustices of racism and segregation that so many people are subjected to on a daily basis. Throughout King’s speech, he uses the rhetorical mode, pathos, to give the audience an ambience of strong emotions such as sympathy.
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 argument when he proclaims, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”.