I Have A Dream Ethos Pathos Logos

E. Alexandria Echavarria-Mariscal
Professor Ryan Sarehkhani
English 100
April 1, 2015

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech “I Have a Dream” given on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Dr. King stated “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Meaning there shall be equality between one another. Dr. King grew up around pastors in a Baptist Church, so when giving his speeches he would tend to sound like a preacher. He was known as a well-educated person who graduated from Boston University where he obtained his Doctorate degree. He was also a hard worker for civil rights for members of his race. Because of his strong work ethics and having knowledge of civil rights, it made him

more of a confident and convincing speaker. On that account, in Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he indicated to African Americans, that in the future the African American community would have equal rights and liberty like all other white people have. In this speech, I have found Dr. King using ethos, logos and pathos to get his attention across about equality and to make his speech sound more powerful. Out of the three rhetorical appeals I have discovered that Dr. King used ethos the most primarily followed by the second and most effective appeal, pathos, using these appeals proves how convincing this speech was to his audience.

Dr. King announced the “I Have a Dream” speech in front of 200,000 African American families and also to a few of Caucasian families that were present at his speech. His speech was mainly directed toward the African American community, to explain that one day there will be equality in not only in the Caucasian community but also to other ethnicities across the United States. Therefore, at the time of his speech, his audiences were to the vast number of people that were willing to listen and make a change to the civil rights movement. To his audience, he stated as the future years pass, the hardship they are experiencing would pay off to future children. For example, in his speech he expressed, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their content of character.” In this quote he was stating that when his children grow up there will be equality and no misjudgments between anyone in the community.

In this speech, ethos was the most used appeal out of all three rhetorical appeals. I found it to be the most predominantly used because he would occasionally quote words from the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and song lines concerning the equality for the Americans. Which stated his point that even in words of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and in songs, they all say that everyone shall be treated with the same respect and the American presidents should obey the words of all three and make sure they follow through to each of their meanings and importance. For example, in this quote King declared, “the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. In this note was a promise that all men, yes black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This quote has summed that there should be equal rights between one another and that the nation should follow what has been written and that we should acknowledge that we are created as equal. Another example of ethos used Dr. King’s speech is where his quoted the song, “My country tis of thee, sweet land of Liberty of thee I sing, Land where my father died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountain side, let freedom ring!” He wanted this verse to come true and to have men, women and children of different ethnicities sing together with meaning, the way the song is meant to be.
Other than the use of ethos being the most predominately used, pathos was also used and by far I feel that the use of his pathos is the most effective and is the main ingredient to get the audience’s attention.

King puts a lot of emotion in his speech to grab the audience’s attention and having emotion for the way African American were being treated. For example, “I have a dream…” the audience can feel the power when King constantly repeated these same words and it shows how determined he was to see the day that equality would come. Another phrase that he used repetitively that had a lot of meaning was the phrase, “Let freedom ring…” this lets the audience know that one day freedom will come and the end to segregation will be presented. Thus, these two phrases were given with so much intense and raw emotion that even the audience felt what King was feeling and proved that his passion for equal rights was coming straight from the heart. As a result, I thought that having pathos in his speech was a great idea and it made his famous speech more compassionate and raw rather than someone just standing up and speaking with no emotion at

all.
In conclusion, Dr. Martin Luther King gave a powerful and persuasive speech, which caught the eyes, ears and emotion of the audience. He was speaking about how one day people will live together where race is not an issue and all ethnicities will get to go to school together as one nation. All in all, I believe that his speech was real and not purposely trying to get the attention of the audience. I feel that he meant every single word because he wanted to see a change and wanted everyone to come together and realize that we are all human no matter the color of their skin. Using the rhetorical appeals such as ethos and pathos and using the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence just proves that he knew what he wanted and sacrificing everything he had in his soul to make sure that the nation will live in equality.