Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Speech

Throughout the world, many speeches are delivered that convey an essential message to the minds of the audience. Similarly, a revolutionary man delivered a speech to embolden and assert the audience in dissidence against the intolerable discrimination as well as the segregation of African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent figure in the history of Civil Rights, recited his famous speech, “I Have A Dream.” He stood for the ideas of social equality. Throughout his speech, he used extensive rhetorical strategies that made it effective for the audience.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s gave his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream” on August 28, 1963. This speech was give on the Lincoln Memorial steps in Washington D.C. Dr. King Jr. wanted to put a dreaded end to racial injustice and make America non-violence. He conveys to his audience to stop feeling remorseful for themselves and to stand up against this horrible way of racial injustice. Dr. King Jr. kept pushing for equality and for

In “I have dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr the use of rhetorical devices helps to persuade the reader to his point. "Now is the time" is repeated at the beginning of the lines with the intent to exaggerate that now "we" as a country need to step in and change segregation and racism and be equal (Luther lines 40-43). It shows the urgency of the situation and that segregation has been going on for too long, and "now" we must stop it. Also in the speech, it starts off with “Five score years ago…” (Luther paragraph 2) which is

Subsequently, King exercises the strategy of pathos, the emotion appeal. In his statement, "Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God\'s children". The great use of imagery with the contrast of light vs. dark here definitely draws audience’s attention. Moreover, by making references to the government as a "Bank of Justice" that gave African Americans a "bad check," King describes the situation of the African American people. He proclaims that the "Bank" is not bankrupt and that it was time to "cash the check". These metaphors are easy to understand and are something that the audience can relate to.

King’s speech; he puts himself in everyone else’s shoes by saying, “I am happy to join with you today.” By doing this, he captures their attention by telling them that “today will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” Now that the audience is fully engaged, he moves towards the sole purpose of his speech. He does this by saying that after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, “100 years later the Negro still is not free.” He goes on to continue to list some of the issues which still occur today and ends his introduction with saying “now is the time” to start action. The body of his speech is primarily made up of the summarization of injustice that the African American people face. He brings up the fact that some people are unable to vote and the police brutality’s which of course support his argument. He makes it personal by giving his insight of his hopes and dreams for the future by stating that his kids will “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The speech’s conclusion properly reviews Martin Luther King Jr.’s points and stimulates the emotions of the audience. He does this by using the repetition of the phrase “let freedom ring” to rejoin with the audience and really emphasizes his belief of the importance of freedom and injustice. Finally, the last line of his speech, “all of God 's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation… But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free...the Negro is sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chain of discrimination,“ (King 261). During the civil rights movement Martin Luther King, Jr. had a speech about how they were treated and does not have much right like others, even they were supposed to be free long ago. During the 1960s, the group of people was treated poorly than another group of people. People who are treated unwantedly wanted a right, freedom, and change in society. Like what Martin Luther King told his audiences they were supposed to have the same

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 addition to strong metaphors, Martin Luther King Jr. also uses repetitions like echoes that repeat his main ideas in the audience’s cerebral valleys. “Now is the time” is repeated various times in the beginning of his speech to accentuate urgency (King Jr. 2). Repeating the phrase four different times in the same paragraph, the point of how valuable the moment truly is drilled into the consciousness of his audience. King Jr. knew that if he could convince more people about the power of now, changes in segregation laws would be obtained faster. “We” also becomes a common beginning word throughout the document (King Jr. 3). The word establishes unity and responsibility between all citizens listening to

It's the 1960's; American society is being torn asunder by civil unrest involving the struggle for equality at home and an inhumane war in Vietnam. In the midst of such turbulence, Martin Luther King Junior argues that American involvement in the war in Vietnam is unjust. He poignantly examines the thesis using appeals to ethos logos and pathos.

On August 28th 1963, Civil Rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. made his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech. In the speech, King confronts the mistreatment of the African American community and the lack of free will they contain in society. Throughout the mid-1900s, the Civil Rights Movement took place, influenced by centuries of cruelty towards the African Americans.. The most influential speech in the modern era was said in front of thousands of Civil Rights activists who all shared a common goal; to fight for the respect and to be treated as equals within the United States.

King used the persuasive appeal, one of which is pathos. King made the crowd sympathize, dislike racism and bring hope for world beyond racism by using heavy adjective and metaphors. The situation of African-American was describe as “crippled” by the “manacles of segregation” and “chains of discrimination”. Great adversity was felt through the crowd as King deliver his speech. He also describe racism is a "dark and desolated valley" while racial justice is "sunlit path". This resulted for the audience to realize the racism in America but there is a path to for racial justice. King used this appeals for the audience feel remorseful of racism. In the end, he describe a vision of hope by repeating “I Have a Dream” with an encouraging statement and that one day “God’s children,” will be all together without racial injustice. The persuasive appeal of pathos was used to guide the audience’s awareness with King’s plans and make have them feel for the African-American, understand the racism happening and be optimistic for an equal world.

On the day of August 28th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the world’s most famous speech on the front steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The speech was lively announced on a bright sunny day in front of a heavy crowd, which is said to of had 250,000 mixed racial people standing before the podium. The crowd went wild while he spoke about his future motives to change the way America treats African Americans. The speech was given to persuade a change in America, by ending segregation and giving equal rights to the African American race. Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister, and a social activist. He led the civil rights movement from the mid-1950’s to his heavy-hearted death, when he was assassinated on April 4th, 1968. Although he was never around to see the beautiful work he had accomplished, his speech and motive helped in creating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dr. King performed a motivational speech by using Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, which influenced Americans to believe the idea that all men were created equal.

The appeal to pathos is a huge part of King’s overall speech and really motivated the crowd in Washington and other Americans listening or watching on TV and radio. King first appeals to pathos by bringing the audience back to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed most slaves. He points out that even though it has been one hundred years, African Americans still do not have the freedom that they are entitled to. This appeals to most of the audience and provokes feelings of still being oppressed. After this he brings up the Declaration of Independence to show that it states that “all men are created

Throughout history we have always had a recurring problem that to this day hasn't ‘it been completely fixed to this day. People were still being discriminated because of their skin color and they need to fight for their equality. We have always looked at equality and have stomped on it, but in the the 1900 people decided to rebel against inequality and get what they were promised. Martin luther King Jr was part of this rebellion and he created a speech to share to the open public to help make them aware that their hard work was making a difference and they mustn't lose hope,But they still have to fight harder and stronger “ And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition” (king ¶3)

First and foremost, Dr. King begins his speech by making it clear that he and the oppressed are American citizens and should be treated as such. By this statement alone, he questions the integrity of the American government and its loyal citizens. As through slavery and segregation, the Christian foundation of which America was built on has been discarded. What the founding fathers fought for and wrote in the Constitution mostly applied to white Americans. In a way, one can say that the minorities were fatherless because they did not look upon as American citizens. They were treated as the unwanted children of America and the Rosa Park bus incident which is the reason of his speech, portraits that perfectly.