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Philosophies and approaches of Dr Martin Luther King
Rheterical analysis of martin luther king jrspeech
Philosophies and approaches of Dr Martin Luther King
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Some people have the magnificent skill to persuade an audience. Whether the people appeal to emotion, to logic, to ethics, or just use great word choice is up to them. Martin Luther King Jr. is one person that can persuade his audience well. Dr. King uses numerous tactics to persuade his audience that the involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust. One of the primary tactics that King uses is stylistic elements. Stylistic elements are literary tools that provide thorough descriptions, explanations, or support. An example of Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of stylistic elements is when he uses a simile. King states, “... Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.” Dr. King states this in order to demonstrate the abject effects of the Vietnam war luring men into its trap of death and debt. This is extremely useful for his argument, for it provides an easily imaginable example to relate the war to. A second example of King using a stylistic element is when he states, …show more content…
uses is ethical appeal. Ethical appeal is the use of sharing personal experiences in order to appeal to an audience. One of the best examples of Dr. King using this is when he states, “ So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.” King uses this to persuade his audience by relating his personal experiences to the facts of the war; it is extremely effective. Another example of King using ethical appeal is when he states “... I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today- my own government.” This quote signifies the awakening that Martin Luther King Jr. goes through when realizing the most violence in the world is caused by the one thing everyone should look up to, the government. This significantly strengthens his
If he had not made clear that he was a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and honest man, he would not have made his point clear. King’s statement “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever,” (Martin Luther King 24) is a strong reminder of history. If people do not realize their emotions in a nonviolent way, they will seek violence until they are heard. That statement is one of the strongest concerns to show why direct action was important, as well as, convincing the reader to consider their immoral practices. King goes above any beyond in sharing his beliefs because if he had not, the audience would not have been persuaded. Furthermore, the information and evidence he demonstrated was necessary at that
Ethos, pathos, and logos are used to make his argument adequate with each appeal adding a different way to look at his situation. They all add an unique touch of individuality to his argument. King establishes his credibility, evokes emotional response, and uses logic all to his advantage. King accomplishes the use of allowing the readers to understand his beliefs. The use of Aristotle’s appeals are what molds his entire letter/argument. As a reader of this letter, it opened me up to a different mindset on what Martin Luther King Jr had to go through to accomplish his goals by getting a sense of the hardships he went through to stand up for what he believes in. I personally believe King possesses the use of rhetorical appeals very
To begin with, Dr Martin Luther King influenced his audience through the use of written techniques. A written technique applied in the speech is repetition, which is the restatement of words or phrases.
The first reason is exigence, or a problem that arises that a speaker needs to address persuasively. In the case of Dr. King, this particular situation was the enduring Civil Rights Movement and the rampant racism causing it in the United States. His need to reveal his vision of equality was his way of combating this problem. The next reason pertains to the audience, and Dr. King’s audience was massive. The audience ranged from those who were directly affected by the struggle – the sanitation workers of Memphis, to those who co-labored – other African Americans, and to those who could affect change – people with the right to vote and change laws within the country . The final reason involves the constraints, or the simultaneous events and other exigencies that affect the rhetorical situation. In this situation, the constraints could be the reality of the death threats against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his fellow activists. The death of these leaders could potentially stifle the movement. For these reasons, I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is successful in his intended purpose. Although he did not personally witness the triumph of Civil Rights Movement due to his ironic assassination (ironic considering he talks about the longevity of life on the eve of this assassination) =, Dr. Martin Luther King’s use of rhetoric in his I Have a Dream and I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speeches
In contrast, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who moved to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s because he had an undying devotion to truth and "justice for all". Through life experiences, educated observances and deeply rooted spiritual beliefs King utilized three major argument techniques to persuade his audience: appeal to reason, appeal to character, and appeal to emotion. King proves to have a deep rooted passion to see blacks achieve freedom throughout this letter. This letter was not only a profound rebuttal to "Letter from Eight White Clergymen", but also a brief statement of King's life and fight. This letter was nothing but a letter which created a change social and morally.
King finally tries to convince his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust through the use of personal moral reasoning. Dr. King writes in paragraph 3, “I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social changes comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.” Through this Dr. King conveys the idea that the Vietnam War is wrong in general;violent actions will not solve problems, instead they will be made worse. Then Dr. King states, “... I knew that i could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today- my own government.” Through the use of this statement Dr. King conveys that though he supports the idea of change coming through nonviolent actions, his own country has gone to war killing innocent people and creating devastating destruction. By using contrast and contradictions, Dr. King shows that the Vietnam War is unjust by first letting the audience know that problems cannot be solved through violence but then contradicts himself when he says that his country has gone on war showing how it is unjust. Dr. King uses his moral reasons and how the War contradicts them making the
Martin Luther King Jr. uses the emotional appeal most often than any other appeal and using it to his advantage, he makes it extremely effective in persuading the reader. He uses emotional appeal in many ways throughout his “letter from Birmingham Jail.” In one of the ways, he uses strong words as one of the most effective ways to relate to the reader and make them feel connected to him. He mentions in his letter that “When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters.” Words such as vicious lynch, drown, hate-filled, curse, kick, and kill are all strong words that persuade a negative picture in the readers mind. Such examples he uses to define the evil acts of segregation appeals to the reader as unjust and unfair. King uses most of his emotional appeals from midway through the letter and keeps using it until the end. King relates himself to the audience, the clergymen, and shows the similarities ...
In response to the public statement issued by the eight Alabama clergymen, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. argues that segregation laws must be disobeyed because they are unjust. He observes the underlying injustice of these laws, and understands that immediate action is pertinent for blacks to attain the rights granted by the Constitution. King presents a compelling argument through the use of extended allusions, an understanding of society and religion, and emotional appeal.
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.
Dr. King uses imagery in his writing that makes the audience visualize what he has seen. He knows that the white moderates have strong family values, so he reaches out to them by providing stories about children. There is one story about a little girl who has just seen an ad on television and when she asks her father if she can go, he has to look his daughter in the eye and tell her that ?Funtown is closed to colored children?(King 561). He then goes on to explain about how that forces that young child to grow up to feel inferior and to begin to hate because she has darker skin than the other children do. Then there is another story about the family taking a cross-country vacation and having to ??sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile?? because motels would not accept colored people (King 561). It ...
King’s second tool was pathos. He used this tool to show concern and appeal to the emotions of the audience by pointing out the number of deaths the war was causing. Dr. King stated, “It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population” (King). He mentioned here that Americans were sending the men in their lives to fight and die in the war. He also made sure that he emphasizes the amount of lives lost without stating the actual number by using the words “extraordinarily high proportions” (King). He showed more emotion by doing this. Dr. King mentioned that the government was taking the poor men from before and sending them far away from home to fight and die for liberties of another nation that they have not yet received. He stated, “We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem” (King). Dr. King said that he could not sit back and watch as they burned villages and killed innocent citizens and not speak out by stating, “And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor” (King). Dr. King would not be silent about the
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
The Vietnam War began November 1, 1955 and ended on April 30, 1975. It began as an internal Vietnam conflict over communism, which then later introduced U.S involvement in 1959. The United States had good intentions for their involvement, which was to stop the spread of communism to other countries. However, in the end, the war was a horrible blood bath for both countries in which there was no real victory for any country that was involved. Towards the mid-end of the war, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech on 4 April 1967 professing his desire to end the war peacefully. Therefore, he gave this speech in order to convince America there is a way to end the war peacefully. Martin Luther King Jr. successfully convinces his audience that there
Introduction Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent civil rights leader, delivered a powerful speech at the historic March on Washington. The speech uses several literary techniques to engage the listener. In the speech, King especially likes to use repetition and metaphor to convey his ideas. These devices are the foundation of King's unique and effective style. Repetition
... 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.