The Rhetorical Analysis Of The King's Speech

In a speech Rev. Martian Luther King Jr. gave to the Riverside Church in New York City, King conveyed his beliefs on the horrific atrocities currently present in the Vietnam War. King began by stating that no longer Vietnam was a oversea issues, "Vietnam [had to be brought] into the field of my moral vision". Likewise, King stated the issues at home such as the overwhelming majority of the nation's poor were fighting in the Vietnam War. In King's mindset, a nation that held it self on the acclaim that all men are created equal, was in fact not equal. King uses a variety of persuasive elements including, but not limited to: concrete examples and analysis, a robust tone, and powerful rhetoric. While King was only one voice out of many of those who were on both sides of the war, King still managed to change others views about politics through the usage of his persuasive elements. In all, King posses a natural eloquence that allows him to spread his message far and wide with the hopes that America will never forget the testatrices that took place at home and oversea during the Vietnam War.

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.

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.

The speech I chose to analyze is Every Man a King by Huey P. Long. This speech was truly moving especially since the era was during the Great Depression. Wealth inequality was at an unsurpassed high in America, and the majority of the people were in the position of struggle and famine. Huey Long was a longtime advocate of redistributing wealth in his own state, he took this platform to a national scale to address his concern of building support for his movement. The society that he was making was the "Share the Wealth Society", a society in which the motto was "every man a king" and whose goal was the limit the wealth of the rich and share with the poor. He used sources such as the Bible, information about the past presidents and philosophers, as well as information of the amount of debt the U.S. has to support his claim. Huey P. Long used ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade his listeners of the broadcast to create a "Share the Wealth Society" in their communities.

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.

Queen Elizabeth’s Speech records the famous speech which, inspired,lead and motivated the English Army towards victory., who were assembled at Tilbury Camp to defend the country against the Spanish Armada. The successful defence of the Kingdom against the invasion boosted the prestige of England's Queen Elizabeth I and encouraged English pride and nationalism. In the speech, Elizabeth motivates her troops by using Ethos,to establish credibility, and Logos, to appeal to logic, reasons and facts.In addition, she uses diction for word choice, tone, and anaphora to deliver inspiration and motivation to the English Army which would lead them to victory towards the Spanish Armada.

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.

March 23, 1775 a group of Virginian delegates gathered in St. John’s Church in Richmond to discuss the ever looming war with the English crown. It was in this Church where Patrick Henry would deliver one of the most influential speeches in the history of America. “Give me Liberty or Give Me Death” (3). He exclaimed to the sound of thunderous applause, he was trying to inspire a nation to rebel against their British oppressors. His speech was given two weeks before the revolution began and is accredited to inspiring the nation to take up arms and rebel. His appeals to emotion and logic make this a powerful and inspiring speech.

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.

By using telegraphic sentences, forceful diction, and simile, King illustrates Jack Torrance’s futile grasps at American masculinity and the aggression resulting from his inability to protect his family and remain in power. Jack is uneasy and angry after the wasp incident because it means that he not only failed to kill the wasps, but failed to protect his family and even put them in harm’s way. Wendy doesn’t understand why Jack is taking pictures of Danny’s hand, so he explains that “We’re going to sue them. The damn thing was defective. Had to have been.” (King 194-195). King’s use of telegraphic sentences illustrates Jack’s erratic train of thought. Jack tries to prove to Danny and Wendy that he can protect them again by fighting a legal battle, but it is obviously poorly thought out and only makes the situation escalate.

On March 23, 1775, He gave a speech to be remembered as the “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech. Less than a month away from the Revolutionary War Patrick Henry addressed the House of Burgesses. The men in the House of Burgesses argued against staging a war opposing the British accordingly the men did not want to raise a militia, although other northern countries did. Patrick Henry uses pathos to convince the men of the House of Burgesses to raise a militia or voluntary army to fight against the British. The members might feel obligated to side with Patrick Henry when viewing the emotional situation the colonisers are in.

We have all heard Martin Luther King’s famous speech, I have a Dream. His main goal was to convince everyone across the country to comprehend racial equality and to reinforce a solution for those individuals already engaged in the Civil Rights movement. You could say his speech was part of what made the movement successful. By him taking a stand, much attention was put into the problems that were going on. He was and still is viewed as an important leader who was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Here we will basically dissect parts of his speech and define the points he was making and trying to make. Throughout the paper, you will see how Dr. King uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to show his audience and make them feel what went on.

While The Kings Speech draws upon a number of historical facts and events, this is not its primary concern. The film is about the effect of a person’s family on how the person develops. For example, in The Kings Speech, King George VI’s brother abdicating and his father’s cruelty played a part in his stammer and lack of confidence. The film is also about the importance of a secure support system, for example Queen Elizabeth and Lionel Logue were Bertie's support system and they helped him overcome his stammer and lack of confidence. A third important issue in the film is about the different approach to class distinction by British and Australian people, as shown by the expectations of Bertie and Queen Elizabeth that Lionel Logue will do

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

The movie «The Kings Speech» is a movie about a man that in the start of the movie is represented as the duke of York. He is the son of the current king, king George the 5th. Early in the movie we are presented with the main problem for the duke, which is his inability to speak publically. They tell us that the duke has something called “Demosthenes” which is a fear of public speaking. We see this problem very early when the duke is about to hold a speech on behalf of the king, but it is made very clear that he is incapable of doing so. The speech is cancelled early and we are introduced to one of his many speech therapists.