Rhetoric in Jfk and Mlk Jr.'s Speeches

Obama uses pathos extremely well, he connects with the, audience and makes things personal to them and himself. His speech is more about the people and how they are what powers change. He talks about his life making the speech personal to himself however he doesn’t just focus on himself he focuses on the people and making the changes he wants to see in America as a citizen. “Not just to hold office, but to gather with you to transform a nation. I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union and building a better America.” This is a perfect example of pathos because he’s bringing the audience together and making them feel excited causing an

Furthermore, King’s letter not only covers ethos and pathos, but he also tries to demonstrate the readers logic in their laws, which is logos. He mentions how they, whites, are nervous and afraid of them because of what they are doing. For instance, he writes, “You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws” ( ). Yet, many of them burn churches and homes of colored people, and beat up non-whites; these are all forms of law breaking activities. While King and his fellow protesters are doing friendly nonviolent protest. He then defines Unjust and Just laws to show others that their laws do not have a sense of logic and do not follow the moral laws that were given to people at birth. “A just law is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law” ( ). He is a pastor, so he would not use or mention God

The Use of Pathos in this speech is used in a way that affects everyone’s emotions do to the attack on Oahu, Hawaii. Here’s an example of pathos in the speech given, “The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost.” This quote appealed to everyone’s emotion in the U.S. by telling us the damage caused by the Japanese. Everyone in the U.S. are most likely feeling depressed and full of anger towards the Japanese Empire because the military forces and the innocent citizens were attacked and/or killed. With Roosevelt’s statements, the people in the U.S. are feeling more insecure, whereas the president wants to go to war to show other nations that we will defend ourselves.

King uses logos in paragraph seventeen, when King is defining an unjust law. He describes an unjust law as “a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal.” In defining the term “unjust law”, King is appealing to one’s logic because definitions are a sound idea. Another example of logos is in paragraph twenty five, in which King is defending his position that he should not be arrested on charges of violence when his direct action plan is the opposite of violent. He compares this to another situation, stating, “Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?” This is an excellent example of logos because no just person would say that it makes sense to arrest the robbed, not the robber. These examples help develop the purpose of the letter because they show how illogical it is that the African Americans are treated this way.

Martin Luther King Jr. used logos in a beneficial way at the start of the text. King stated that; I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against outsiders coming in. (King 1) He answers this statement by saying; I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference… So I along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. (King 2)

In this life, many hope for peace, but not many try to achieve it. According to Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, there are many ways to achieve this, but the best possible course of action would be through nonviolent direct action, which includes but is not limited to: peaceful protest, sit-ins and civil disobedience. In King’s letter, he proclaims his reasoning behind nonviolent direct action, including: the concept that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (par. 4), extremism can be used positively (par. 22), and the fact that “oppressed people will not stay oppressed forever” (par. 24). King uses literary devices including ethos, logos, and pathos to prove and reaffirm that which he is trying to convey.

African American Baptist minister and activist, Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech, addresses racism against Negros and demands equal rights and freedoms. King’s purpose is to motivate his audience to join him in fighting for what they deserve. He shifts from an urgent, demanding tone at the beginning of the speech to a more hopeful and patriotic tone towards the end. Throughout the speech, Dr. King appeals to the audience’s desire to better their futures by utilizing figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, and rhetorical devices such as repetition and parallelism.

Since King, is a very sophisticated writer, he uses utilizes a lot of ethos to support his statements. For

Martin Luther King Jr.’s extraordinary use of logos is apparent in his letter from the beginning. In the first paragraph, King states “If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day,

Robert Kennedy established common ground with his audience to unify them and make them all equal by using parallelism. In the beginning of his speech, Kennedy claimed the country would have a tendency to divide into “black people amongst blacks, and whites amongst whites” after the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. He purposefully pointed out the racial differences and their desire to divide to convey to the audience the need to unify as a country in this difficult time. To unite his audience further, Kennedy ended his speech by saying “the vast majority of white people and the cast majority of black people” want to unify and live together in peace. The audience needed to understand that a large majority of people in the country want peace between the races, despite the recent events suggesting otherwise. The speech was trying to convince them to stand with the majority of people in the United States who want peace and not give in to their immediate violent impulses.

Kennedy, wanted nation’s to come together and be civil with one another. To not show fear of negotiating with them the idea. He explains how he wanted this to be done, yet he knows this wouldn’t happen during their time, but he wanted to be the start of something new. During his speech he used the rhetoric device chiasmus which is to rephrase what was said in the previous sentence. Here is an example of what he said, “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It is the same thing just switches it to make it sound how can you help, instead of how they can help. Basically, kennedy is saying to be more involved in our country.

First Martin Luther King effectively makes use of logos throughout his letter. He clarifies all of the reasons for his arguments and supports them

When informing Americans across the nation of his dream, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proposed an unforgettable speech that would one day change The United States of America forever. In analyzing “I Have a Dream”, there are a few rhetorical purposes that are reflected throughout. These purposes are repeatedly focusing in on a particular audience in which King speaks to. Using different types of appeals and literary elements, his speech produced a meaningful purpose that the audience could relate to.

In the very first line “I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history…” King is using Ethos here to make the audience feel like they are fighting with other Americans to reach the same goal. He continues to use ethos throughout his speech by mentioning the history of the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln and God. This helps build his credibility and trust by incorporating commonly held beliefs that these

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than two score years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. Aimed at the entire nation, King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice towards the mistreated African Americans and to stand up together for the rights afforded to all under the Constitution. To further convey this purpose more effectively, King cleverly makes use of the rhetorical devices — ethos, pathos and logos — using figurative language such as metaphors and repetition as well as various other techniques e.g. organization, parallel construction and choice of title.