I Have A Dream Ethos Pathos Logos

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Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his speech “I Have a Dream” to America on August 28, 1963. According to the CNN website Polk and Stewart state that “over 250,000 people including both black and white Americans gathered to hear King at one of the largest civil rights movements in history” (Polk & Stewart, 2013). He spoke about the unfairness of segregation and discrimination of African Americans that was taking place in the nation. He inspired a nation into action with his words and demonstrations that would provoke a change in the minds and hearts of the American people. During the speech Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used all three rhetoric concepts to appeal to the audience. The use of logos, pathos, and ethos made his argument as strong as it was. “Logos is a way of persuading an audience by reasoning and having evidence. Pathos …show more content…

Martin Luther King’s use of pathos is incredible as he guides the emotional values of both ethnicities by saying, “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 the content of their character”. This quote is inspiring to many members of his audience especially to the parents who do not want their children to experience segregation the way they did in America making the parents teary eyed thinking their children will have to go through the same horrid discrimination they once endured. Further along in his speech, King talked about his “American dream”. With the use of anaphora he then began to start every paragraph with his famous sentence,” I Have a Dream…” by describing his dream that every American whether white or black are enjoying equality and justice, living together in peace, having a better education, and overall a better life. He begins to appeal to the desires and emotions of his viewers which helps paints a picture for the audience that there is a future, a future that all Americans wish to live, the “American Dream” of being

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