Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Speech

How does the speakers' rhetoric evoke a reaction from the audience, in the speeches? Political speeches use rhetorical devices to persuade the reader to engage in their speech. "I have a dream” by Martin Luther King Jr, ESPY award speech by Jimmy Valvano, JFK's inaugural address, the Gettysburg address by Abraham Lincoln, 2009 inaugural address by Barack Obama are examples of political speeches that contain rhetoric. Throughout the speeches asyndeton, procatalepsis, allusion, antithesis, ethos, pathos, logo, repetition and parallelism are used.

wrote a very well planned out speech for the specific occasion he was speaking at. He made his speech on August 28th 1963, a time where racism was ravaging especially in the south. However, being the man he was, he bravely stood up in front the nation’s capitol and spoke his mind. He had such eloquence when he wrote this because it flows so well.

As we have been discussing, rhetorical analysis asks us to look not only at what a text says, or the meaning of the text, but also at how that meaning is created in the text. For this assignment, I want to challenge you to not just analyze the “ethos, pathos, and logos” of a text, but to delve deeply into how the text moves us to identify with its message, and to think, feel, or act in a specific way.

Throughout Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech is an array of rhetoric’s. The three main ones that are highlighted more than the others are persuasion, power and community. Dr. King’s speech was intended to persuade the audience to give the African American community freedom from years of harsh slavery. An aspect that contributes to persuasion is the appeal of what is trying to be persuaded. The speaker wants to use emotion or personal appeals when persuading and that is what Dr. King truly succeeded in. He was affected by the mistreatment and cruelty by others which made the audience feel closer to him because they were also affected.

One hundred years after the abolishment of slavery, under a luminous summer sun, a large crowd assembles in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The activists hustle and bustle around, murmuring in anticipation and unaware of the exquisite masterpiece they are about to perceive. Soon though, a preacher by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. is introduced and steps to the podium. The crowd is overwhelmed by thunderous applause that is instantly silenced once he speaks the first words of a speech that is to be remembered for the rest of history. “I am happy,” (King 1) King starts and he has a splendid reason to be; after all, he inspired millions to justly defend their basic human rights. His adroit use of rhetoric such as

wrote a well planned out speech for the specific occasion he was speaking at. He delivered his speech to the nation on August 28th, 1963, during a time where racism was ravaging especially in the south. However, being the man he was, bravely stood up in front the nation’s capitol and spoke his mind. His purpose, to alert the citizens of America “...the fierce urgency of now.”. In hopes that one day “...little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls…” to end all of the discrimination that has been experienced for years.

The intended audience would have to be every single American person alive. Because, of the microphone stand we know it could be heard nationwide, and the police officers in the photo next to the speech, lets us know there was an immense crowd.

Martin Luther King’s Speech Analytical Analysis Good Leaders always understand effective methods of communication and how to inspire followers. Perhaps, one distinguishing feature of leaders that make them unique is understanding and utilizing effective methods of communications in various situations. A letter or a phone call, or even modern means of communication such video conferencing might not work to inspire a group of soldiers to sacrifice their valuable lives in the way of preserving a country’s dignity, freedom and territory. Hence, a leader should choose a better means of communication.

On 3 April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of his arguably most influential speeches. It took place in Memphis, Tennessee and would be the last speech his would give to the American people because he was killed shortly after. It addresses the unfair treatment of African Americans and how they should handle the situation. He wants people to peacefully join together in order to fight for equal rights. King explains all of the successes the Civil Rights Movement has brought on so far and everything he wishes to accomplish. He explains all of the events he is thankful he had the opportunity to experience. It acts almost as a goodbye to all of his supporters and a reassurance that everything will be okay no matter what happens in the future. He is confident that the Civil Rights Movement will have the success that he has intended. The speech was, in many ways, unique due to the fact that it seemed as though Martin Luther King Jr. knew that it would be on of his last speeches he would have the ability of making. It Throughout the speech, King uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to effectively illustrate the point is trying to make.

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of hundreds of thousands of people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his influential “I Have a Dream” speech. King, a significant figure in the Civil Rights Movement, ignited activists across the nation that day as he encouraged and inspired his supporters to protest the injustice African-Americans experienced in their environment. Dr. King’s speech, efficacious for the use of rhetorical devices to demonstrate the necessity of racial equality to his audience, helped shape American society’s view and treatment of black people.

Allusions are “brief references to a person, place, event, or passage in a work of literature assumed to be sufficiently well known to be recognized by the reader.” (Rhetoric Terms – AP English 2) King references Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in one of the very first lines of the speech. He repeats the first line of the Emancipation Proclamation, “[five] score years ago..” King uses this method to show that still after 100 years, blacks are still enslaved.

Today, in this corner of the Internet dedicated to the Oratory and the techniques of public speaking, I can not fail to remember that fifty years ago, one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century was celebrated yesterday: the one he delivered fifty years ago yesterday, Marin Luther King, in Washington, at the foot of the Lincon Memorial, before more than two hundred thousand black rights defenders in the USA, and remembered by the famous phrase "I have a dream" dream).

In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter while incarcerated in Birmingham jail to

With Civil Rights supporters surrounding the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. spends a hot August day emphasizing the necessity of equality amongst each American. While capturing the attention of Civil Rights activists, he discusses racial injustice and the actions that need to be taken in order to create an equal society. King presents nonviolent protest ideas that he hopes will help further their fight for equality. King relays his goal of freedom to the Civil Rights activists encompassing the Lincoln Memorial through pathos matched with an array of rhetorical devices such as anaphora and metaphors.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an ordained minister and had a doctorate in theology. King Jr. also had his beliefs and gospel which helped him to became a very influential and non-violent civil leader that wanted to stop the idea of the southern communities who had started to segregate their people based on the color of their skins. Martin Luther king Jr. was part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which was the group that fought against civil and racial injustices in Birmingham, Alabama. King was arrested in 1963 during a sit-in at a luncheon counter. But while in the Birmingham jail he decided to write a letter to his follower and fellow clergy man who were his main audience when deciding to writing the letter from his jail cell.