Rhetoric In Martin Luther King's Speech

MLK’s use of pathos and repetition is an effective way to persuade his audience about his position on civil disobedience. In King’s speech he says, “Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country” (King Page 6). This evidence, revealing MLK’s use of pathos, was used to reach out to the emotional citizens who have either experienced or watched police brutality. The use of pathos is effective because it appeals to emotions and the issue of civil rights and civil disobedience. Civil rights is an emotional subject for those who were affected by it, and MLK is proving his argument on civil disobedience.

To begin with Dr. King used logos in his speech to educate the people and give them evidence and logic. Dr. King used both logos and pathos in his speech here is an example of logos used in his speech. “ Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, Signed the Emancipation Proclamation. ”(King 261) is the quote that Dr. King wrote in his speech. He is telling them that the African Americans have been free for five hundred years and that was a great point in history but the African Americans aren’t treated equally or fairly.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech he uses many different rhetorical devices. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. These purposes can be similar, or different. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing.

LFBJ Martin Luther King (MLK) uses Pathos to persuade his readers and uses rhetorical questions. MLK appeals to his audience when he states, “ In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (King 6) MLK. MLK used pathos here to link with the reader’s emotions. It makes the audience think about justice vs. injustice.

To achieve this, he used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to pathos and repetition. His passionate tone flowed through these strategies, increasing their persuasive power on the people and encouraging them to follow/listen to his message on racial injustice. While pathos elicits an emotional response from the audience to make them more accepting of King’s ideas, repetition structures the speech and emphasizes key ideas for the audience to take away from listening. These two techniques played a crucial role in furthering his purpose and in provoking a powerful response from the audience that made this speech memorable and awe-inspiring. To this day, King’s speech remains one of the most famous and influential speeches in

During the late 1960’s, Birmingham was the most segregated city in the United States. Riddled with high racial tension throughout the city, it gained its name of “Bombingham.” This was due to the fact that there were 60 unsolved bombings. With the city of Birmingham in ruins Martin Luther king was quoted in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, “I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.” Martin Luther king used the misfortune in birmingham in order bring out reform and revamp the civil rights movement. In his famous text “ Letter from A Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr makes use of rhetorical strategies, especially in the fourteenth paragraph. In order to help illustrate the frustration that

King shows Ethos in his letter by writing back to the clergy men who had objections against King’s protest in Birmingham. They basically called him an outsider but by establishing his credibility, King shows that he is in fact an

The first major rhetorical strategy that Dr. King utilizes is an appeal to logos through logical reasoning. The deployment of this technique can be observed virtually everywhere throughout the textual piece, although there are some certain key points where the strategy is used.

The use of the historical and biblical allusions/ references being used is to help build a standard ground for his audiences and the clergymen; it also helps make his letter more effective. King 's letter uses biblical allusions to create analogies between

A regular rhetorical strategy that appears in Martin Luther King’s letter is ethos. Ethos relates to the credibility of the writer

Throughout the text, King utilized the values of his audience to gain sympathy and later on support. His use of diction and syntax would align his mission to God’s, and show that he was in the right and the clergymen were in the wrong. In his letter, King effectively used an extended periodic sentence that consisted of more than 300 words. The sentence has an extreme appeal to pathos, with such vivid imagery

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.

Similar to the other persuasive tool, King uses logos extremely effectively. King knowing his audience was clergymen and the white moderate, uses something that they cannot argue against, the Bible. King uses countless references to the Bible throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and even wrote it in a format that is accustomed to the clergymen. King thought of everything when drafting this letter, which could be attributed to the fact that he was in jail and had countless hours to think. Just using one of these persuasive tools however was not enough to win over his audiences.

Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech shows powerful examples of logos and pathos. His effectiveness relies heavily on his usage of these two ways to explain the pain and suffering of segregation. By him capturing his true life’s reality through pity and credible sources allows him to become successful in attempting to end the racism crisis. King states that, “when our republic was writing the Declaration of Independence, they were making a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights’ of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Logos is the prime example of King using this event of writing the Declaration of Independence.

“In expressing [his own emotions] with such powerful eloquence, in connecting strongly with the emotions of his listeners, and in convincing them to empathize with others, Dr. King demonstrated emotional intelligence decades before the concept had a name”(“Dr. Martin”). He demanded to end racism throughout the entire United States. King utilized repetition, metaphors, diction and rhetorical devices, that provokes ethos and pathos, throughout his speech in order to connect with his audience as well as to motivate them to stand up and fight for their freedom they well-deserve. One of the most used literary elements throughout Martin Luther King’s speech are diction, which leads to rhetorical devices such as, ethos, logos, and pathos.