Rhetorical Analysis: A Time To Break The Silence

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Martin Luther king Jr was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States. MLK Jr. was known for his sermons and his speeches. By the time he passed away he wrote five books and had delivered about 450 speeches a year. One of his most controversial speeches was "A Time to Break the Silence." In this sermon, King speaks out against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War while it was still broadly supported by many Americans. In his speech he makes an effective argument by presenting the problem, getting his points across and offering a solution all the while using rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos.
From the very beginning of the speech, king presents the issue that going to war in Vietnam not only affects the USA in the present but also in the future, it's clear that this is a deliberative speech due to its nature of deciding for a course of action. At the time of the war, African-Americans were still dealing with discrimination and King's point was how can a country who's not treating all of its inhabitants as equals have them go off to war with the propaganda of serving for their country when their country has not served them, "we were taking the black young men who had be crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in
King stated that peace could happen once everyone got into the same page and decided that until everyone put their weapons down and tried speaking with each other instead of using violence or fear tactics, nothing would change. In his speech, king says that there are five things our government needs to do in order to "extricate ourselves from this nightmarish conflict." King believes that unless we start taking the appropriate steps to end this war America will not be able to progress nor will it be able to solve the problems happening on our own

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