Rhetorical Analysis Of A King

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There are many things in life that are indefinite. It is not definite whether or not one will achieve his or her dreams, find the meaning of his or her life, or even live to see tomorrow. In this context, it is much easier to see why promises are of immense significance because promises assure an individual that something definite will happen in his or her universe that is full of uncertainty. In the history of the United States, a great promise is made to African-Americans in the 13th ,14th, and 15th Amendments of the Constitution. These Amendments should have guaranteed the unalienable rights of African Americans. Unfortunately, these promises were broken like the hearts of those whose hopes were crushed. A century later, a gifted speaker …show more content…

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 …show more content…

King’s use of this syntactical scheme is illustrated in, “We will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day”, emphasizes the sense of unity with the word “together”. The sentence itself displays unity as all of its infinitives are woven into one powerful proclamation. Just as the sentence itself is highly potent as it is loaded with unified grammatical units, King’s speech also suggests the potential influence of a unified people fighting for an honorable and righteous

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