Rhetoric In Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

Another piece of Dr’s speech that supports pathos rather than logos, is when he says “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning…”. This rhetorical device called repetition, supports Dr. King’s main idea that people of color like himself, should be treated equally and all blacks would

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the biggest players in the Civil Rights Movement and he wrote/spoke two famous works, his “I have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” of which both had a different purpose and audience. He used different rhetorical techniques depending on the purpose and the audience that he is targeting with the work such as Logos (Logic) and Pathos (Passion). In Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech his purpose is to encourage people to keep peacefully protesting and not to lose hope or start getting violent. The audience that he speaks to are Civil Rights supporters that want equal rights for all races.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made long speeches, proclaiming his dream of equal rights for all people, including African Americans. He used rhetorical devices and ethos, pathos, and logos to spread his message. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's method of protest was effective because he peacefully resolved racial inequality and segregation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used anaphoras and pathos to persuade his audience to support equal rights for the African American community. In Dr. Martin Luther Kings Jr's "I Have A Dream Speech,"

The introduction of Abraham Lincoln in the beginning acknowledges a successful past president who put in great work throughout the civil war. King does this to gain the attention of his audience and establish a strong connection to a credible source. Trust was now built between King and his audience through the appeal of ethos. Another way King creates credibility is when he quotes the Declaration of Independence, a legendary piece of American history that provides authority to King. He then compares the historical work to a promissory note that has failed to hold any value.

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential African-American activists in American History and was a key participant in the Civil Rights movement, the goal of which was to provide full civil rights to all rights in America. MLK has written many, many speeches and letters in favor of the Civil Rights movement in America, the most famous of them being his legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech and the monumental “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To attempt to gain support for his cause, MLK employs the use of emotional appeals, also known as pathos, and logical appeals, also known as logos, which aid to stir emotion and reasoning in the listener. It is more than obvious that MLK tends to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners with his emotionally charged language essential to his success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses more powerful and plentiful examples of pathos in his literature, examples of which being his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, than logos due to the more powerful emotional connection they carry which can convince his listeners to sympathize with his civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic speech, delivered during the historic March on Washington in 1963, remains one of the most powerful and influential addresses in American history. King's speech adeptly employs various rhetorical devices to captivate his audience and convey his message. One rhetorical device employed by King is the use of repetition. Through powerful repetition, King emphasises key phrases, such as "I have a dream," which not only resonates with the listeners but also reinforces his central message and fosters a sense of unity. Furthermore, to make his thoughts more concrete and relevant, King skilfully incorporates metaphors and vivid imagery.

Jackie Robinson once said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives”. Thousands of things in life can have an impact on our lives, whether it is a small or a large impact, it will change the course of our lives. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is widely considered one of the most impactful speeches in American history. In Martin Luther King Jr's speech, King uses repetition and metaphor to develop the central message that all races should be treated equally. King repeats the phrase "I have a dream" throughout the speech, which serves to emphasize the importance of the message and gives the audience a sense of unity with the speaker.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lincoln gave his speech during the period of the Civil War, and King gave his speech during the Civil Rights Movement. They both had addressed the issues of freedom and equality. They also shared a common purpose. Without the demand for change the nation will fall apart. This paper will discuss the rhetorical devices used to achieve each author 's purpose.

By using these rhetorical devices, King successfully inspired emotion in his audience and gave them hope for a possible bright future. We can see that Martine Luther King use several rhetorical devices within the speech to grab attention of the people who were engaged with the unjust oppression. First of all, in the beginning of his speech, he made a connection alluded to Lincoln’s speech ‘‘Five score years ago…’’ (Line 2.1, page1) this line referred to the Gettysburg Address, presenting by the United States president. King used it to enhance credibility primarily because of Lincoln’s high position related with civil rights.

On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave us one of one of the most rhetorically moving speeches ever given. Titled as the “I Have a Dream Speech,” he read this speech to the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. As a civil right mover he gave this great speech to all Americans (black and white) so that he could give off the idea of equality on the same level. Because of his crowd of mix races King made sure to make his speech imploring to all no matter what the race that they may be. He uses metaphorical imagery, powerful diction,and symbolism to create an impact on the audience.

The main idea of his speech is that all people were created equal and, although this is no longer the case nowadays, King felt it must be the case for the future. He argued peacefully, yet passionately and powerfully. In preparation for the speech, he studied the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence and he alludes to all three in his address. The intensity of King’s speech is built through parallelism, metaphors, bold statements and rhythmic repetitions:

In 1963, Martin Luther King delivered one of the most influential and impactful speeches in history. King's I Have a Dream speech was consistently powerful assertions of emotional appeals, repetition and paradox. In King’s speech, he utilizes pathos to build a relationship between his black and white audience. This is evident through his references to both  black and white children and the history of slavery which appealed to the audience members of the older generation.

Martin Luther King 's uses various literary devices such as metaphors, personification, similes, and imagery in his speech so that his audience would be able to better understand and visual what he is saying. An example of a metaphor in King 's speech is when he compares the deprivation of African American rights with "a bad check that has come back from the bank of injustice marked with insufficient funds". He states that we must cash a check that will give us the riches of freedom and security of justice. This metaphor is referring to the freedom and rights that African American 's deserve and are promised but are not given. An example of personification in his speech is "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

King also discusses his personal life, along with his family and children, to show the crowd that he is fighting for the same things as them. In his I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. used ethos to increase his credibility with his audience, pathos to appeal to his audience’s emotional side, and logos to appeal to his audience’s logical side. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s use of ethos begins in the first few lines of his I Have a Dream speech. He begins the speech with a direct reference to Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address. King speaks of Lincoln as an admired figure in the Civil Rights Movement when he states “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” (King 84).

During the era of the civil rights movements in the 60s, among the segregation, racism, and injustice against the blacks, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial to deliver one of the greatest public speeches for freedom in that decade. In Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech he effectively uses ethos, diction and powerful metaphors to express the brutality endured by African American people. Yet his most important method of reaching his audience, and conveying his enduring message of equality and freedom for the whole nation was his appeal to pathos. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Opening his speech Martin Luther King Jr. sets up his credibility with his use of ethos, referring to the Declaration of Independence saying, “This note was a promise that all men… would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life.”