Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, I Have a Dream, speech was given in Washington D.C. in 1963 at the feel of the Abraham Lincoln’s memorial. Thought this speech King voices how he feels about the amount of equality that the Negros were receiving in the United Stated. Although Dr. King has many different ways to grab the attention of his audience today through his speech, the best ones are his used of forensic, ceremonial, and deliberative occasions, his use of rhetorical appeals, and his use of colloquial second-person. “Five score years ago” (King). This quotes starts off the speech by using forensic occasions. In this quote Dr. King is referencing to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. This is a very good and strong way for King to begin his …show more content…
King showed how they were not being treated as they should by saying, “Now is the time to make the real promises of democracy.” By this he means that all the promises and laws of the Negros being free and all men being treated equally have not been enforced as they should be now and in the future. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” (King) In this quote, Dr. King is expressing how he feels that it is obvious that it is time for America to live up to their promises of equality and freedom. King shows his good use of deliberative occasions in this quote by stressing how he has a dream about it because it was not reality in our nation. Dr. King did an amazing job for listeners and readers if this speech on not only showing them the reality of what has really been going on and promised, but also by using rhetorical appeals to help pull the audience in even more especially while using pathos …show more content…
King, at least for me, did this extremely well in many different ways. One including when he talked about his dreams of being free and having his children grow up somewhere not being judged by the color of their skin. This showed that although there were laws of equality and many wanted equality, it was not a reality at this time. Another example that I noted was not in the text but how he was speaking, King would take random suspense building pauses that help grasp the attention of the full audience. Emotion isn’t the only major factor when it comes to rhetorical appeal, there is also ethos and logos which try to convince the audience that the speaker is ethical and uses logic in his reasoning. When looking for ethos the main one that I realized was not in the text, but exactly where he stood, in Washington D.C, at the feet of the Abraham Lincoln memorial statue. This, in mine opinion, has shown how he wanted to be close to the authority in Washington. The passing of the constitution of the declaration of independence and how they try to enforce equality helped King establish logos with his
Firstly, two literary devices King used in his speech were ethos and logos. To appeal and emphasize his credibility, King began his speech with, “five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we
“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men” (Plato). This is part of the theme in both Martin Luther King I Have a Dream speech and Bernie Sanders presidential speeches. Using Rhetoric, it does not only influence the words, but also the audience. Martin Luther King and Bernie Sanders are both great inspirational leaders that want their audience to hear their voices. Martin Luther King is a civil right activist that is for the people by wanting equal rights. He wants the blacks and whites to come together and end segregation and non-violence. Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist that is for the people by wanting human rights. He wants all people to live a better life with no struggles. In both of their speeches, Martin Luther King
Dr. King first starts out all pumped up on a very light note. He is very optimistic about his speech in the very first line. However he bluntly addressed the issues of hardship, which African-Americans endured while America was beginning to become a stronger symbol of hope and freedom. He acknowledged the experience of wealth which his race became accustomed to, the ghetto poverty. He recognized the right of each color and pale man who contains the right to live, liberty, and the pursuit of true happiness. As bluntly as he began his speech, he boldly pointed out the Supreme Law of The Land- the Constitution - and quoted the Declaration of Independence as all.
One of the many stylistic techniques Dr. King employs to end segregation and bring about equality is word choice. At the beginning of the speech, Dr. King says, “Five score years ago.” Those words are extremely effective at making his audience of African Americans and the millions watching at home think of one of the most famous Americans to have ever lived, Abraham Lincoln. At a time in America’s history when racial injustices are beginning to become too much to bear, Dr. King had to find a suitable figurehead for his movement that all Americans could believe in and trust. It was Dr. King’s intention to have his audience think about Lincoln, as it was Lincoln who freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation, and that affects every African American in the country. Dr. King also intends that the phrase “Five score years ago,” bring up thoughts of Lincoln because Lincoln held the country together through great turmoil during the Civil War. If Lincoln could stop the violence of a civil war in only one term of presidency, Dr. King wanted to show that he and anyone willing to join him could also stop the violence against Afri...
The very title of his speech was probably taken from his use of anaphora which was present throughout his speech. "I have a dream that one day the nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed¡K that all men are created equal." For the next few lines of his speech he repeated these words, "I have a dream," which helped arouse emotion in his audience and give them hope. This hope was that they would one day be treated as equals and walk side by side with the all other races. King uses his the phrase "I have a dream today," twice as its own paragraph. This statement was probably spoken with great emphasis since it gave the listeners the desire to change "today" instead of continuing to be discriminated against. Martin Luther King's speech could have very well been titled something else but because of his use of anaphora which strongly emphasized these words it earned itself the title "I Have a Dream."
... He addresses his audience with honesty and respect, without making his readers feel like they are being vanquished. Instead, they were being made aware of what their actions were doing to society, and that they could make a difference. Dr. King uses a very strong pathos while speaking to his audience.
...pair”. (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 11). In the beginning of his speech he says “five score years ago,” which is in relation to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address’s opening, “four score and seven years ago.” (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 2). He also uses the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as references. He says, “This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 4).
Dr. King’s speech “I Have a Dream” is one of the most famous and important speeches ever given. On August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C Dr. King gave his speech to bring freedom to African Americans across the United States. The audience who Dr. King is talking to is the American People. To get the message out Dr. King uses logos, pathos, and ethos, by doing this he captivates an entire nation using just words.
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
Dr. King uses ethos, logos, and pathos effectively throughout his letter to address a large audience. He intertwines the three rhetorical strategies seamlessly to support his argument. Although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has his critics in the clergy who argue against his civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, he effectively uses all three types of rhetorical strategies to effective persuade his critics by explaining why his actions are just and timely in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
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)
Dr. King begins his speech with the use of ethos in order to gain credibility with his audience. He does so initially by making the audience associate him with Abraham Lincoln: a powerful, and respected United
... 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.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech to more than 200,000 people during the March on Washington. King's speech was one of the most influential during the era of the Civil Rights Movement and is to this day recognized as a masterpiece due to its effect on the audience as well as for its eloquence and language. Many components went into this passionate speech that portrayed King's hopes for racial equality and a brighter future made the speech as moving as it was. It is doubtful that any person can guess that this speech was written without forethought regarding what goals King wished to accomplish in this speech. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eloquent language was perfectly suited to his audience, both his immediate and secondary audience, and his carefully chosen diction helped to shape arguable one of the most touching works ever spoken.
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