The Ballot Or The Bullet Rhetorical Analysis

The popular “The Ballot or the Bullet”, speech articulated by Malcom X is considered one of the most powerful speeches in American history and vital works of art to the black community. The rhetorical speech voices his belief on the way black people were treated by the ‘white man’. His speech is developed using the rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos and logos to articulate his critical point. Often referred to as the three artistic proofs, ethos, pathos, and logos are “modes of persuasion used to convince audiences (ethos, pathos, logos, 2016).”

Robert Kennedy, a candidate for president in 1968, delivers a powerful speech on the evening of the death of the civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In the speech, Kennedy effectively uses rhetorical devices, ethos pathos and logos to calm his audience from riots. The speech was spoken with the purpose of keeping Dr King’s wish to act non-violently even after negative events. Although all three rhetorical devices are present, pathos and logos are the two devices mostly influencing his audience when calming them about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s death.

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.

Malcolm X, a world-renowned activist leader. His essay “Homemade Education” expresses his determination to read and write better. He desired to be able to grab the audience attention and shock them with his knowledge. Malcolm X became an influential leader from reading and writing in prison despite the lack of formal education of black men.

Patrick Henry and Malcolm Little (more commonly known as Malcolm X) were powerful spokesmen of their times. Years after Henry persuaded the United States president in time of the American Revolution to fight for the rights of Americans in his “Give me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, Little encouraged the black community of his time to stand for their own deprived civil rights as a race in his own speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet.” While these two men stood at the head of separate movements in different points of history, both believed in a similar goal to be accomplished through the same means: to win their battle for the rights of Americans and African Americans through fighting hard, not necessarily through violence, but through whatever

Rhetorical Analysis Essay When striving to achieve goals needed for the greater good, sometimes calls for more than a minor disruption but action taken on a monumental level. In this case would you stick with null progress you are in, or on the other hand, would you insist that you will and can resort to violence to develop immediate progress in the situation. In 1964, Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X was troubled with this problem. With violent and degrading words towards Democrats or anyone that opposed the inequality of African Americans, he gave “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech to lift morale and encourage others to look at violence as a viable option(Malcolm X-

Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells” and “You have been the veterans of creative suffering”. These quotes from his speech are so powerful to the people his speaking to. He ends his speech with “…go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed” and I can only imagine the crowd went crazy after he said that. He used such powerful words and connected to his audience which is what pathos is. The final example the

The black community is one of the most common minority groups that are impacted by a multitude of injustices; in the speech “Ballot Or The Bullet” Malcolm X speaks on behalf of the political and economic issues that impact everyday lives of African Americans. Malcolm X successfully attempts to persuade his audience to become Black Nationalists, which is a national identity where the ideology is unity and self determination-that is separation or independence (Wikipedia). He persuades his audience to become Black Nationalists by stating that him, along with his audience, are victims of false political promises and creates the antagonist “the white man”. The idea of creating the “white man” antagonist proves that they’re all fighting the same

In Martin Luther King’s Jr, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” the letter was a persuasive attempt to get Americans to finally see the inequality in the United States of America. Throughout King’s letter, he used various ways of persuasive strategies: pathos, logos, and ethos. But the strongest influential device King used was pathos. Now the word “strongest” has various meanings, but in this instance, it means the most successful.

He can say so much more stuff to them that they have to think and contemplate about. When he uses logos he is appealing to the reason and what they need to do in order to get through these times. When using pathos in his speech he is appealing to the audience by using powerful words to make them think about it. If they think about it they might be able to come up with a way to try and help them get out of this mess that they are in. Using those two devices are a good way to help him persuade his readers but there is one more that he uses.

On April 12, 1964 Malcolm X gave his “Ballot or Bullet” speech at King Solomon Baptist church in Detroit, where two thousand people were in attendance. At this time President Lyndon Johnson was running for reelection which was the fuel to the fire for Malcom's speech. Malcolm X used the ethos approach to educate, convince, and encourage black people to get more involved in their communities to expand “Black Nationalism”, which I don’t think was successful because at the time it was not easily attainable. Ethos allows Malcolm X to convince the audience that he knows what he is talking about which persuades them to believe that what he is saying is true. In this case he is trying to convince the large crowd that “Black Nationalism”

In 1741, Jonathan Edwards delivered a sermon called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut. This sermon was so influential and poignant that today it has transformed into a piece of literature that many study in classes. This bit of literature is so utterly jam-packed with the use of rhetorical appeals, often referred to as ethos, pathos, and logos. These three appeals are derived from ancient Greece, or more precisely, the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Ethos appeals to the audience’s sense of trust, pathos, to their sense of emotion, and logos, to their sense of logic.

What it talks about is how we need to fight for our independence from Britain. Thomas Paine used pathos to make an impact on his audience because he talks about current situations

Dr. King addressed the masses in a passionate,emotional manner. He didn't fail to point out that society was the issue, he didn't single anyone out. From the way he chose to phrase his words, to keeping his tone serious and firm, without being irate. He used ethos, in saying " And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true".

Malcolm X increased the popularity of Black Nationalism- the belief and ideology that equality could only be achieved if there was an independent African American community. He gained most of his popularity through preaching for the Nation of Islam. He went on international trips and made foreigners in African and European countries aware of the hardships black people faced because of the racism in America. He caught America’s attention when he was on a week long radio broadcast.