Ethos Pathos And Logos In I Have A Dream Speech

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Born January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. He became known as one of the most influential and prominent Civil Rights Movement Leaders. Mr. King was the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He, as well as numerous other citizens, were known for nonviolent acts on stopping the discrimination against different races and to achieve their civil rights. The most prominent thing Martin Luther King, Jr. would achieve before his assassination in 1968, would be his famous “I have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses repetition, diction, and religious pathos to persuade his audience in Washington, DC and all of America to stop leaders and citizens of the United States …show more content…

Further along in his speech, he continues with, “trials and tribulations.” By this, he uses diction as a way to say that even though we come from different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and more, we are still under the same God and we are all in this together. Another example of Dr. King’s strong use of diction is, “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” The words “satisfy our thirst for freedom” is a prime use of a rhetorical device because he shifts our feelings into feeling thirsty for freedom rather than wanting or aching for it, putting an even bigger prominence to it. The third rhetorical device Martin Luther King, Jr. applies to his speech is his use of pathos. He doesn’t only use pathos by his own being, but by his religion. “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 of God’s children.” In saying this, he is remarking that we are all under one God. We all are brothers and sisters to the Father above

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