Rhetorical Analysis Of King's Speech

Recently, scholars have analyzed King’s (2003) chapter You’ll Never Believe What Happened is Always a Good Way to Start, with the intent to discover King’s rhetorical techniques and overall purpose. At the time of his speech, the world was “predominantly scientific, capitalistic, Judeo-Christian” (p.12). Firstly, Cassandra Plettell (2017) found that King utilizes ethos to demonstrate how stories may alter an individual’s perception (p.2). Similarly, Emma Murphy (2017) found that King uses ethos and pathos that “portrays the idea that stories have the ability to greatly impact individuals’ lives” (p.2). Then, Ajodeji Edna Adetimechin (2017) found that King uses ethos, pathos, and logos to convince his audience of the influential power that stories “have in shaping perspectives” (p.2). In general, they have found that King’s purpose is regarding the influential powers of stories with the use of ethos, pathos and/or logos. In addition to Plettell, Murphy and Adetimechin’s finding, I would like to go a step further and argue that King’s overall purpose is to persuade the audience that the Genesis creation story has formulated a culture that lacks forgiveness, compassion, and unity (King, 2003, pp.24-27). Inclusively, I will argue how King utilizes his personal experiences with stories, emotional appeals, and writing arrangement in order to gradually persuade his highly intellectual audience.

Thesis: King brilliantly applies rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos and ethos that are crucial in successfully influencing detractors of his philosophical views on civil disobedience.

Dr. King used pathos and logos as well as ethos in his speech to appeal to the audience in a more emotional way. He mostly attempts to appeal to the audiences’ emotions, fears, and desires. When King repeats with the infamously famous quote, “I have a dream,” he stresses a sense of sympathy and hope towards the African American population during that time period. King states that the, “Negro…finds himself in exile in his own land.” In this phrase, King yields compassion as one can see when he emphasizes the unfair treatment and alienation of the African Americans. King also uses highly connotative language so that he could evoke a, emotional response to the audience such as, “chains of discrimination” and “oppression” to reinforce the need

Martin Luther King Jr. built his speech around fighting unjust conditions placed on both African Americans and soldiers of the Vietnam war with non-violent protest. King is arguably the best speaker the world has seen, he knows how to get his audience passionate about the problems America faces while also informing them of what causes these problems.

In his letter, King uses all three modes of persuasion- ethos, logos, and pathos. King addresses all of the clergymen's concerns methodically and answers them both with clear, indisputable facts and with emotional appeals to allow the reader a closer and honest view of a colored person's life in the South at the time. King uses ethos to establish his character, but also to reassure the reader of his intentions. In this letter King keeps his tone unemotional and informative allowing logic to prevail. Throughout his letter King is successful using metaphors and imagery to express ideas or emotions that would otherwise be difficult for the reader to grasp.

Presenting his evidence to not just the eight white clergymen who prompted this letter but also to the coloured and white masses of the time, Dr. King presents an ample variety of religious and historical facts in addition to pathos-ridden anecdotes of injustice at play to sway anyone from the emotionless devout to the atheist white moderate. After stating a certain block of writing’s sub-thesis, the reverend moves swiftly to present his evidence before tying all the different facts together into a lesson to be learned — the sub-thesis — from the information at hand. An example of this format he uses is at the point where he discusses the justifiability of following or disobeying a law. Using simple wording, the reverend states his position

innocent black children (his children), explain knowing certain laws you are to follow as citizens. Initiating in speaking of controversy concerning the justice system. Mr. King reveals the ugly side of the United States hidden beneath the surface stinking up the joint as he presents these matters of contention he uses figure of speech and borrowed versus within the Bible. Analyzing such letter, I've observed him leaving no stone unturned uprooting all the dead weeds with regard to clearing all no-good debris. Not once does he backdown, admitting his motive in consideration of maintaining patience and respect in such difficult

Dr. King gave a demonstration concerning this agonizing, perplexing question by recalling an event that occurred immediately after Christ’s transfiguration. Therefore, as Jesus was coming down from the mountain, He found a small boy that was in wild convulsions. Continuously the disciples had tried desperately to cure the unhappy child, but the harder they labored to heal him the more they realized their own inadequacies and the pathetic limitations of their power. But just before they were about to give up in despair; Jesus appeared on the scene. Then after the father of the child told Jesus of the failure of the disciples, Jesus “rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him, and the child was cured that same hour.”

When conducting a protest King states “ In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.”(1), this depicts how King strategizes the best way to create change as a community. Although Thoreau does not create a movement as King did he is eased with the fact that his conscience remains pure. King creates a strategy so that he will always be superior in any given circumstance when dealing with scenarios that call for protest against unjust treatment. He creates these strategies based on facts that come from developing a case and analyzing the topic up for debate. Unlike Thoreau King believes in the power of a constructed meeting

The movie The King’s Speech is about Prince Albert, Duke of York, who later becomes King George VI. The story focuses on the treatment of his speech impediment, a stammer, and the friendship he develops with his speech therapist, Lionel Logue. Throughout Prince Albert’s, or Bertie’s, treatment he unexpectedly finds himself on the throne. Bertie’s wife, Elizabeth, is another important character, who stands by his side through it all. It is a heartwarming story about friendship, loyalty, and trust. In this movie many interpersonal concepts are present, but three apparent and vital ones were perceptions, nonverbal messages, and relationship stages.

Martin Luther King, a black civil right campaigner, gave an unforgettable speech called “I Have a Dream” on August 28, 1963, commemorating the centennial of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and urging President John F. Kennedy to pass civil rights bill. King’s purpose of giving this speech is to eliminate the inequality of treatment to black people, to express the necessities of eradicating racial inequality and to pursue the improvement of future changes. He adopted a tone in order to appeal similar feelings and experiences with the audience, especially black people. In this paper, the rhetoric strategies in King’s speech, such as allusion, simile, hyperbole and repetition emphasize his ideas, help audience to remember his ideas and raise

Newly elected Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, in his speech to the House of Commons, addresses the impending World War II. Churchill’s purpose is to acknowledge the fact that he is aware of the war coming, and what he wants the country to do about it.

When any artist or director embarks on the journey of creation, they use a variety of different techniques to aid in the conveying of their message. Their main goal is to create something special for their audience, or rather call them witnesses. Convincing them that a personal piece of art, whether it be a painting, a novel or a movie, is different than all the rest. Rhetoricians create an author’s idea, their own unique perception of reality, for a vast and diverse viewing audience.

In the film “The King’s Speech”, written by David Seidler and released on November 26, 2010, the filmmaker portrays Albert being constantly under pressure for speaking correctly, by comparing his speech to great broadcasters who are anything but great leaders. The pressure that comes from Albert’s father, King George V, results in more frustration for the both of them, without either of them realising that to lead a country into greatness depends more on just speaking well. Throughout the film, there had been ideal speech models like Hitler, David, and King George V, shown in order to compare their speech to Albert’s and to show what a great speaker has to sound in order to gain the public’s support. Ironically, all of those speech perfect models turned out to be egocentric individuals and the least egotistical leader, Albert, is the one with the impaired speech. I argue that in “The King’s Speech”, the characters who serve as models of ideal speech are figures of oppression, therefore the author is implying that the idea of having ideal speech does not live up to it’s praise.

Academy award winning film, The King’s Speech, is a motivational movie where voice and courage become a matter of life and death. Prince Albert, later known as King George VI (Colin Firth), stammers excessively and uncontrollably through his inaugural speech closing the 1925 British Empire Exhibition due to a speech impediment. After finishing such a disappointing speech, Prince Albert decides to give up on himself and accept his fate as a stammering heir to the throne. However, his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), enlists him to see an Aussie speech therapist that goes by the name of Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) whose “Antipodean methods are known to be ‘unorthodox’ and ‘controversial,’” (“The King’s