A Rhetorical Analysis: of I Have a Dream Essay

King’s letter also appeals to the emotions. He uses pathos to appeal to his audience and at the same time influence them. For instance, he uses overwhelming truths to justify his actions he says, “When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a negro , living constantly in tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect” this will explain to the audience why it is difficult for him and his contemporaries to wait (Jnr, 2012).

Doctor Martin Luther King Junior was an expert in persuading his audience. He was a massive advocate for the civil rights movement, and when he saw the injustice being served to the African American community during the Vietnam war, he had to take a stand. In his passage, "Beyond Vietnam- A time to break silence", he uses the rhetorical devices of logos, pathos and ethos to to strengthen his argument for why American involvement in the Vietnam war was unjust. The technique of logos, using logic to persuade an audience, is seen many times throughout this passage.

Almost immediately, Dr. King tries to plead the case of all African-Americans. He states, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” This appeal is to the hearts of those listen, that even if they are physically free, many parts of life bind them in a similar manner. The allusion of chains weighs heavy on a person’s conscience and is a great example of pathos. While he definitely uses a mixture of rhetorical devices, King uses pathos the most to make his point.

With the intention of grabbing the readers’ attention, which is the clergyman and the white society audience, King dramatically uses pathos to reveal the suffering of his people and express the emotion guilt to make readers feel sympathy for the Negro community. According to King, “We were victims with a broken promise” (165). In addition, King states, “[try] to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the amusement park…and see tears welling up in her eyes” (166). Basically, both of Kings quotes are demonstrating an emotional response of pain

King uses pathos in a sense to elicit the dormant emotions of his followers to speak up for what they believe is right. In detail, King uses the dreadful daily experiences of the Negro community to exhort a feeling of shame and guilt by the clergymen. Using these horrific experiences, he is able to connect with the brothers and sister who share this darkness. He also shares with the clergymen of the abuse and racial hatred that only the Negro community is faced with. For instance, King expresses, “when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect

have a knack for presenting himself as a reliable character, but he also pleas with emotion. This inconspicuous pathos skill similarly supports King’s use of ethos. In a broad sense, because he is responding to the clergymen’s statement on his activity, he is showing the audience that he will take time to justify his actions and instead of blowing off any opposing viewpoint. Basically, he is establishing his moral character which begs the clergymen and white moderates to listen and agree without directly asking them to do so. Similarly, King inserts analogies to play tricks on the audience’s heart strings. He compared what is happening to the African-American community to “condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery” (King 211). This requires some thinking initially, however, King is trying to point out that punishing the Negros for protesting is unreasonable because they wouldn’t have reasons to protest if the white moderate did not instill segregation so heavily in the South. If society could remove racial injustice, then the protests for the issue would cease. Mostly though, by placing this analogy, King is painting a picture as to how the African-American community feels. This comparison draws on the sympathy of the audience and introduces the notion that the Negros are not at fault. The reader must take a step back in order to see how briefly King enforces pathos, yet in the end it is extremely

In the midst of his speech Dr. King explains why segregation should come to an end and why everyone in America should believe this too. In Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech he utilizes a multitude of rhetorical devices, including: charged language, analogy, parallelism, and repetition. Dr. King exercises these rhetorical devices to persuade his audience to fight for Civil Rights by using emotional appeals. Emotional Appeals help persuade by showing more emotions than normal writing would do.

In his speech, in order to back up his basic structure King uses rhetorical modes, one of which is pathos, or the mode of utilizing human emotions, by making his audience no longer hate Negroes and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world, which is part of the structure of his essay. King tries his best in the speech to make the audience sympathize with the Negroes, dislike racism and then be filled with hope of a new world without racism by using strong adjectives and metaphors. For example, King constantly describes the Negroes as being “crippled” by the “manacles of segregation” and “chains of discrimination.” Through this, King makes the audience feel that the Negroes are in great calamity; as if the Negroes had committed a crime and have to be restrained, something which King emphasizes on when he compares the situation of the Negroes as to being stranded on a “lonely island of poverty” while everybody else around them are indulging in a “ocean of material prosperity.” Therefore, through this, the audience realizes how it is not because the Negroes are stupid that they live in poverty, but because the white American society is literally holding them back.

King gets contact with the reader's emotional side with Pathos. He uses Pathos to draw the reader in and them feel the same emotions that people of color deal with. “When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to expect newt, plagues with inner fears and outer resentments, when you are

King uses pathos to get through to the crowd and to show them that beneath the surface segregation is more damaging than they ever imagined, and really drives this point across to the audience when he says, “We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs saying For Whites Only.” (Pg. 49-50, lines 76-78) Euchner interviews many people who were in the audience for King’s speech, and one such man- Harold Brogg- recounts the experience with undeniable accuracy. Euchner states at one point that, “That brief phrase…strikes Harold Brogg ‘like and electric shock.’” (pg. 61, lines 228-229.) Many of those watching the speech can understand where Harold Brogg is coming from, which shows King’s artful use of pathos. His emotional and strikingly personal statement is relatable by all, evoking sympathy and outrage all while revealing the ugly truth behind

In Dr. King's speech I Have a Dream, King exclaims the need for this time of racial discrimination to end. King tries to connect with and persuade every US citizen that changes need to happen and these feelings of hatred need to be abolished. He does all of this by using an incredible unification

In the year 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a famous speech that will go down in history. This famous speech was titled, “I Have a Dream,” and it targeted a touchy subject at the time, abolishing segregation. During the mid-20th century, racism was one of the most pressing topics in this day in age. African Americans were deemed free under the Jim Crow Laws. However, they were still victims of endless amounts of hatred and torture. Because of this, many civil rights activists and groups started to try to end this terrible time period in history. Within the many groups that began during this time, Dr. King was one of the most influential speakers of this generation. With this, MLK effectively demonstrates a sense of security and emotion through the use of pathos, metaphorical quotes, symbolism, diction, and even repetition.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “I have a dream”, is my choice in this week’s forum. Delivered before hundreds of thousands of Americans on the 28th August 196,3 this speech has come to be regarded as one of the most forceful and defining speeches ever given. In this landmark speech, King advocates for racial equality and immediate end to racism. Not long after this momentous speech, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came into existence (Garrett 1)Dr. King’s “I have Dream” speech employs perfect use of Aristotle’s appeals of ethos, pathos and logos to appeal to the audience. To bring out different kinds of tone in his speech, Dr. King uses perfect choice of words or diction.

Throughout his speech, Martin Luther King Jr appeals to the emotions (pathos) of his audience. He uses word and phrases like “crippled”, “chains of discrimination” and “island of poverty” to portray the conditions in which black Americans are forced to live. His continuous emphasis on racial injustice

King's central idea of utilizing pathos is to make people perceive something. He knows where people feel disturbed and what to say in order to make people feel it. But one hundred years later, The Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still