I have a Dream “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”(King 3) Martin Luther King Jr said this in his I Have a Dream speech on August 28th, 1963 in Washington D.C. In his speech, he spoke to thousands of Americans and people worldwide about equal rights for all Americans, not just white Americans. He wanted everyone to know about the injustices African Americans were going through, and he wanted future generations to have equal rights. Martin Luther King Jr. utilized imagery, pathos, and ethos. Martin Luther King Jr. uses imagery to compare what is happening to African Americans now and during slavery. He started his speech by talking about the Emancipation Proclamation. “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light …show more content…
Using this quote made the audience imagine what it is really like and what the African American population in America is going through. Martin Luther King Jr. used imagery very effectively; he used words that made the reader visualize what was happening and what it felt like for African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. used pathos, an emotional appeal to make people feel sympathy for African Americans and the struggles they had to go through. Using brotherhood, he states, “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.” (Para 6). By saying this, he compared quicksand to the widespread racial injustice across the country. MLK saying this makes people think they are like everyone else, are they part of the …show more content…
These are just some of the many ways he used pathos in his speech, but I think these are some of the better ways he appealed to the audience's emotions. Martin Luther King Jr. used Ethos, an appeal to the audience’s sense of credibility, giving the white audience a reason to listen to what he had to say. He first talked about his dream for Mississippi stating, “I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and injustice.” King saying this made the audience think that he wanted the best for all people in America, and not just for African Americans. MLK stated his ambitions by stating, ” And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” (King 13) Using the American dream made everyone believe that Martin Luther King Jr. wanted the same thing as everyone else and he just wanted to be able to live the American
Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered as motivation to fight for their rights and help paint the picture of what America could look like in the future. He does this by in the beginning saying that even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed African Americans are not treated as normal citizens. By saying this Martin Luther King Jr. was saying we should not just be content with being free from slavery. That now it is time to fight for our rights and to end discrimination because of the color on one’s skin.
On August 28th, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke to roughly twenty-five thousands people attending the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. In Dr. King’s speech, “I Had a Dream”, he uses rhetorical devices to convey that all people are created equal and to educate the importance of the Civil Rights Movement.
After 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln gave African American slaves their freedom in society they were still not treated as equals. In August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech “I Have a Dream” that impacted the nation. The twenty-six-year-old pastor of the city's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church had to show the grievances of his people, justify their refusal to ride on Montgomery's city busses, and encourage them in peaceful way. In the “I have a dream” speech given by Dr. King he uses persuasive appeals to fight for the civil right movements in the most civilized way. To do this he had to convince African Americans that his way of going with things was in their best interests, and he had to convince white Americans that his vision was not going to change their heritage and in their best interests as well.
He was getting his audience attention and having them feel a certain way of how the African Americans are being handled, treated, and respected. For example, when he kept saying I Have a Dream, the audience could feel the toughness and courage King had in his speech and how strongminded he was of having fairness and equality. Another quote that seems lively was when he kept starting off every sentence saying let freedom ring at the end of his speech. King let the audience know that one-day freedom will ring, segregation will end, and equality will come about. As king said both of them phrases in his speech, it had so much emotion involved. I say this because the audience can feel how Martin Luther King was feeling at that time. Using a lot of pathos in his speech made it more meaningful, inspiring and expressive. Bernie Sanders and Martin Luther King tempt to engage their audience 's emotions in their pathetic
Martin Luther King Jr., sparks emotion amongst the readers, through the use of pathos in attempt to create an emotional feel. His diction and vivid language makes this appeal successful. He writes on his scratch paper given to him in jail “I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "wait" (Longager & Walker, 2011, p. 270). The phrase “I guess” conveys the irony and absurdity of his claim. “Stinging darts” is also powerful, and truly makes the audience feel sorrow for those facing racial segregation. His strong diction is also depicted through anaphora. The repetition of phrases and words such as “when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mother,” “when you have seen hate filled policemen curse” and “see tears welling up in her eyes” provide the reader with a sense of sadness. By emphasizing “you,” he forces the reader to put themselves in the position that he is in, and experience it with him. Using anaphora creates a sense of memorability and urgency, all while remaining in the pathos category (Longager & Walker, 2011, p.256). Strategically used repetition not only forces the reader to focus on an idea, but also assists in conveying his intended message. The logos appeal is also in effect here. He utilizes the logos appeal to argue a non-violent protest is a wise decision. He details the daily life of an African American man, using words such as
The “I Have a Dream” speech given and written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was and still is one of the most powerful speeches given. Because of the literary elements used in the speech is gives the audience something to think about and relate to and mixes with their feelings to possibly change their stance on the subject. Because of the serious issues that went on during the civil rights movement, such as separation of public services and unfair treatment to African Americans, something had to be done to end the racial injustice. People did try to prevent the discrimination by gathering marches and leading protests. But one of the largest impacts on this time period was the “I Have a Dream” speech and Dr. King’s use of literary
In Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, King makes use of an innumerable amount of rhetorical devices that augment the overall understanding and flow of the speech. King makes the audience feel an immense amount of emotion due to the outstanding use of pathos in his speech. King also generates a vast use of rhetorical devices including allusion, anaphora, and antithesis. The way that King conducted his speech adds to the comprehension and gives the effect that he wants to rise above the injustices of racism and segregation that so many people are subjected to on a daily basis.
The famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the historic March in Washington in August 1963 effectively urged the US government to take action and to finally set up equality between the black and white people in America. Although there were many factors that contributed to the success of the speech, it was primarily King’s masterful use of different rhetorical instruments that encouraged Kennedy and his team to take further steps towards racial equality. King effectively utilizes numerous linguistic devices, such as metaphors, anaphoras, allusions, and provides an abundance of specific examples in his address, and this all makes the speech more convincing and memorable. But before we look at these rhetorical devices employed in the speech in more detail, a brief summary of the discourse may be helpful. It can be divided into two parts.
Five decades ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his now famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Thousands of people came from across the nation to watch King give his speech. I Have a Dream is a speech that holds a lot of power and emotion. King’s figurative language, diction, and repetition inspired a change in the nation. King’s usage of hyperboles, compare the struggle that African-Americans felt to the battering of nature. He uses metaphors to highlight differing concepts. His speech gets both black and white audiences to realize the true harshness of the segregations that African-Americans faced to that time.
King uses in his speech is Pathos, which is the appeal to someone 's emotions or beliefs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. presented a strong feeling towards African-American people about how they were treated as equal individuals “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (King par. 3). Another example of pathos that Dr. King used was when he uses vocabulary and phrases, such as “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream” (King par. 12). He uses the appeal of emotion, especially the word of choice and diction to let his audience’s know what he would like to see in the
When Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a dream speech”, there was no way that he could have imagined that a new system would be born. Born from the ashes of slavery and Jim Crow, a new system of racial and social control; that would trap millions as second class citizens. A system known as Mass Incarceration.
It takes courage to dedicate a life to trying to make a difference in a society where people believe their ways will never change. Martin Luther King was one of the very few national idols of social movement which used the power of voice and faith to motivate millions. In,”Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]” he addressed the clergymen about racial discrimination the country was facing and how we should find peace without resorting to violence. Through MLK’s use of Ethos,Pathos,Logos he was able to argue about the nonviolent resistance movement towards racism.
In his speech, “I Have a Dream,” delivered on August 28, 1963 at Abraham Lincoln’s memorial in Washington, D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explores the rights that African American’s are granted by the U.S. Constitution. King believes that those rights are not equal to the rights that white men and women have. King describes a world that is different than the world where he lives. A world that he desires his family to grow up in and the vision that he sees America becoming. Though all Americans were ostensibly granted unalienable rights, King uses rich figurative language to argue that African Americans are still waiting to enjoy the same privileges afforded to others.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. use of rhetorical appeals. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. effectively uses Logos and Pathos differently in his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to persuade the specific audience for each occasion. In Kings “I have a Dream” speech he appeals more to Pathos because of the occasion coming off the march and Washington and the enormous crowd. King starts his speech with pathos to engage the audience and to promote his civil rights activism, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. This statement shows emotion by using his children and a hope for equality to bring listeners to an emotional state.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech describes the past, present, and future lives of African-Americans. Racism of African-American was a huge issue of the time, which created kairotic moment for the speech and motivated Dr. King to demonstrate the racial problems of the time. The propose of Dr. King’s speech was to inform people about racial equality and fairness by providing hope and a vision of the future. Dr. King’s speech was intended for different types of audience especially for racial supremacists and African-Americans who were discriminated against.