In this passage Dr. King stresses his anti-war stance due to the war going on in Vietnam. He says “a time comes when silence is betrayal,” meaning staying neutral is siding with the oppressor. At the time black people in the south who were anti-war were imprisoned for defying the draft. For King to stay silent while all of these events were unfolding, to him would be a crime. He says wars are an unjust way to settle differences and for our country to be on the “right side of the world revolution,” we need to stay away from immoral activities such as war. The sentence “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world evolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values,” (King 8) is an imperative sentence. …show more content…
I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours,” (King 8) is an anaphora. It is an anaphora because it repeats the phrase “I speak for” while highlighting the point that so many are being affected by the war, including Americans. The emotional appeal in this anaphora is shown in the lines talking about the “suffering poor of Vietnam” and the “poor of America.” Here King is showing that he is there for and empathizes with the victims of the war. As an audience we see King is brave and we can try to sympathize with both the Vietnamese and the poor in America because we feel bad. This speech was given to young progressive African Americans (maybe some white liberals) so the repetition and emotion in this anaphora works to charm the audience and inspire them. It shows pathos because of that emotional appeal but also ethos because through these lines King shows that he cares a lot about people no matter their
King proceeds to the latter part of his speech by declaring the need for peaceful resistance. His analogies of man “carving highways of death in the stratosphere” (3) and how non peaceful defiance will contribute to “a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation” (3) soundly depicts his ideals of how African Americans should reach true freedom and equality only through pacifism. He mandates this passiveness in order to bring about change insightfully because his goal is not to wage war against their oppressors but to defeat the evil sentiment held by the nation. King’s remarkable aptitude and brilliant intuition in his dialogue enables the reader to appreciate and concede to his ideals.
talks about how African Americans in the South were being arrested and publicly chastened by the police force for their nonviolent protests. But, he extols these protests because of what they stand for. He says they “…preserve the evil system of segregation…I wish you had commended the Negro demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation” (94). Because these people were aiming to end the discrimination they were facing, and did this in a peaceful manner that respected their Judeo-Christian values that all men are created equal, King saw it as exactly what this oppressed group needed. They needed a push of confidence to know that they were being treated unjustly, and that they did have the power to stand up to
Dr. King notices that the clergymen are anxious over the black man’s “willingness to break laws” (King pg.218). He understands their anxiety over that issue. King then refers to the “Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools," praising it for its civil rights initiative (King pg.218). By mentioning the Supreme Court decision, he is reminding the reader that even a credible source such as the Supreme Court supports racial equality. Since most citizens are law abiding, the addition of the Supreme Court decision might convince the reader adopt the belief of racial equality. King then streamlines into a rhetorical question and answers the question. King writes, “One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying other laws” (King 218). This question is King admitting that his intention seems paradoxical since he urges people to follow “the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation," while he is apparently willing to break laws (King pg.218). He insists that it is not a paradox, but rather an acknowledgement of the distinction between “just and unjust” laws (King pg.218). He insists that everyone has a “legal” and “moral responsibility” to follow just laws, but one equally “has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” (King pg.218). In order to further provide evidence for his claims, King alludes to St.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." When King says this he brings all people together and unites them. All people in America are in the same situation of having to deal with social injustices. Throughout the entire letter, King does not falter when he affirms their better selves. This also shows his confidence in himself. His uses of rhetorical devices in the end of paragraph six show the hardships and the training that his people must go through and what they must endure to try to gain equality against the odds. He makes it seems as if this letter is the last straw and he tells the clergymen that he has delayed time and time again, however the injustice being done is becoming overwhelming.
With this intention in mind, he brings up the notion that unjust laws are meant to be broken if the person breaking them has accepted the consequences or if breaking the law is for the bettering of society. King believed that if you break a law that your conscience deemed unjust and accept the punishment in order to make people think about the injustice that the law set in place, you have the highest respect for the law. As stated in the prior paragraph, King refers to the voting system in the state of Alabama and how it is corrupt. The way laws are being voted upon make them unjust, and, therefore, set a baseline for them to be broken. Towards the end of the passage, King brings to light how the police officers were commended for their actions of keeping the protesters in “order and preventing violence”. The white community believed that all laws were just because they did not negatively affect their lives. The black community speaking out and protesting against laws they viewed as unjust were perceived as obscene by the white community. This point of view demonstrates Kings beliefs that unjust laws are breakable, because while the white community in Alabama saw such protests as obscene and unneeded, the rest of the country tuned in to watch everything unfold.
... questioning the virtue of vapid judgment, and the merit and efficaciousness of abeyance. This paper has specifically examined his reaction to accusations of civil disobedience, extremism, and admonitions favoring quietism, and the impact his retaliations had on the goal of equality in America. While misrepresentation turns out to be the opposition’s most formidable tool, history, logic and rhetoric serve as King’s strongest allies, allowing him to turn the tenuous arguments of his critics into a formidable bulwark. The letter’s greatest impact on the audience is King’s disambiguation of fact and myth. The fact that his letter was widely publicized proved invaluable to the cause as well. But beyond this, King’s rhetoric allows no room for opposition, only for defense, leaving those in disharmony with his words on the side of immorality, injustice, and villainy.
As King stood before the massive crowd of Americans, he urged the citizens of the United States to turn their hatred of colored people into a hatred of the true evil: racism. King continually states that the black people are being held back by the “chains of discrimination.” King uses this to make the audience feel that the black people are in great misfortune. King describes the white people as swimming in an “ocean of material prosperity” while the black people are stranded on a “lonely island of poverty.” Here, King magnificently uses the Declaration of Independence and implores the audiences’ emotions on all levels, wielding pathos as his Rhetorical weapon. Prejudices surrounded the nation and caused fear, anger, panic, rage, and many more intense emotions. All people who lived in this time period experienced these prejudices in one form or another. King takes the idea of these prejudices and describes a world without all of the hate and fear. He imagines an ideal world that all races, not just black people, would find more pleasant and peaceful. Moreover, King references how the United States has broken their promise to the men of color by refusing them the basic human rights granted in the foundational documents of the country: the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
In his poignant anaphora, “We can never be satisfied”, King establishes a tone of unification with his use of “We” as it creates a sense of togetherness among his audience. This anaphora expresses how these injustices are not faced by just the individual alone, but is actually faced by the individual alongside his fellow brothers and sisters. In addition, this anaphora adds to the effectiveness of his tone as it is fortified with heavy-hearted statements that appeal to pathos, such as, “We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating ‘For Whites Only’”. Like a machine gun that can fire bullets in rapid succession, King is able to rapidly fire a succession of injustices that needs to be addressed with bullets in the form of anaphora all in one paragraph. The resulting effect is the captivation of the audience’s undivided and uninterrupted attention which makes the audience more susceptible to unifying and taking
This idea of “waiting” has been presented to them for years, yet change has not happened. Therefore, the need to fight for justice is a right that they have as American people. In his letter, specifically throughout paragraphs 13 and 14, King expresses his urgency through many different rhetorical devices such as metaphors, periodic sentences and anaphora. These rhetorical devices work together to create the powerful tone and structure of his letter. In other words, the period sentence is formed by anaphora, which is further strengthened by emotional metaphors. Essentially, Martin Luther King hoped to establish the necessity of fighting for freedom rights rather than waiting for no change to
Again, Mr. King uses religion as a guide to explain why violence could never be used to get the end of the segregation. At that moment and as a strategy, he was probably right. The forces between the parts were to uneven. Besides, Mr. King knew that the federal government barely has capacity of action since they were stuck in a horrible and unpopular war in Vietnam, and riots and demonstrations were happening everyday in the universities across the country. However, if we look at his decisions from today’s point of view and attending to the fact that minorities are still suffering the injustice of economical segregation and the police force abuse, among others injustices, we can say that he didn 't go to far. Then may be we can rethink if appealing to violence to avoid those problems could be considered just as self-defense. For example: when communities are being devastated by poverty, drugs, and criminality, and the authorities don’t do anything to protect them just because they are black, Latin, or American Natives, don’t they have the right to fight back? Moreover, when they have to watch everyday in television the awful crimes that some authorities commit against minorities with no punishment in most of the cases. Don’t they have the right do defend their own life? It is a fact that violence is not desirable, but we have to remind that the end of slavery in the United States cost a civil war, that the
Ethos or ethical appeal is used to help the audience know that the speaker is being fair, knowledgeable, considerate and trustworthy with his words. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.” (King 852) King shows how this moment will change the way African Americans were treated in the past and how he hopes for today’s generation will change how people see them. He wants them to trust in his words, to know that he is knowledgeable about the long suffering their ancestors had to go through. In another part of his speech, Kings says “But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” (King 853) King is appealing to his audience that though wrongful doing has been done to them, they need to be the better person by not stooping to the level of injustice they had previously had to endure. He wants them to be considerate of others even if consideration was not shown to them in the
In the letter his rebuttal is “they" had no other options, except to prepare for direct action,” and, Dr. King has many logical pieces of proof to support his point. When proving his point he used several different strategies, one strategy he used is including historical evidence in his letters, like when he writes, "We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal. "(King 1963) He also used some logical fallacies, when he is appealing to the authority, like when he writes, “Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...”(King 1963) This is an appeal to authority because he is including a well respected name of someone famous, and saying that this well respected person agrees with him, so his idea must be correct.
Dr. King effectively expresses why his critics are wrong in a passionate tone. He is extremely zealous about the rights that African-Americans have been neglected to have and should have, as well as everyone else. Mr King was criticized for his “untimely” actions in Birmingham. “This wait has almost always meant ‘never.’” (King 264) Martin Luther King isn’t just a bystander witnessing the injustice; he is a victim and one of the few who is willing to fight for justice well deserved.
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
In King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he uses rhetorical strategies to capture his audience and to keep their attention as well. One style that Dr. King used when he delivered his speech was Ethos, which is establishing his own credibility to