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Philosophies and approaches of Dr Martin Luther King
Rheterical analysis of martin luther king jrspeech
Philosophies and approaches of Dr Martin Luther King
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Some people have the magnificent skill to persuade an audience. Whether the people appeal to emotion, to logic, to ethics, or just use great word choice is up to them. Martin Luther King Jr. is one person that can persuade his audience well. Dr. King uses numerous tactics to persuade his audience that the involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust. One of the primary tactics that King uses is stylistic elements. Stylistic elements are literary tools that provide thorough descriptions, explanations, or support. An example of Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of stylistic elements is when he uses a simile. King states, “... Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.” Dr. King states this in order to demonstrate the abject effects of the Vietnam war luring men into its trap of death and debt. This is extremely useful for his argument, for it provides an easily imaginable example to relate the war to. A second example of King using a stylistic element is when he states, …show more content…
“If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam.” This quote is an example of a metaphor. It is used to relate the effects of the war to the death of our country, a very dolorous comparison for the audience to imagine. This, too, is extremely effective in strengthening Dr. King’s argument. A second tactic that Martin Luther King Jr.
uses is ethical appeal. Ethical appeal is the use of sharing personal experiences in order to appeal to an audience. One of the best examples of Dr. King using this is when he states, “ So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.” King uses this to persuade his audience by relating his personal experiences to the facts of the war; it is extremely effective. Another example of King using ethical appeal is when he states “... I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today- my own government.” This quote signifies the awakening that Martin Luther King Jr. goes through when realizing the most violence in the world is caused by the one thing everyone should look up to, the government. This significantly strengthens his
argument. A third tool that King uses to persuade his audience, one of his best tools, is emotional appeal. Emotional appeal is when an author uses language that gets his/her audience emotionally attached to the subject at hand. Martin Luther King Jr. states, “... Sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and die in… high proportions relative to the rest of the population… that has been unable to seat them together…” This quote has Dr. King’s audience feeling infuriated and lachrymose over the poor choices they have made, for men that have been separated by color are fighting and dying for- and with- each other. This is truly effective for his persuasion of the unjust involvement in Vietnam. A second strong example of King using emotional appeal is when he states, “It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.” This quote has the audience feel downtrodden; furthermore, it provides the audience with the reality of the United States’ unjust involvement in the Vietnam War. This is extremely effective. To conclude, Martin Luther King Jr. uses numerous tactics to build an argument and persuade audiences that the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust. Three of his primary tactics are the use of stylistic elements, the use of ethical appeal, and the use of emotional appeal.
If he had not made clear that he was a trustworthy, knowledgeable, and honest man, he would not have made his point clear. King’s statement “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever,” (Martin Luther King 24) is a strong reminder of history. If people do not realize their emotions in a nonviolent way, they will seek violence until they are heard. That statement is one of the strongest concerns to show why direct action was important, as well as, convincing the reader to consider their immoral practices. King goes above any beyond in sharing his beliefs because if he had not, the audience would not have been persuaded. Furthermore, the information and evidence he demonstrated was necessary at that
On April 12th, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was leading a peaceful protest in the city of Birmingham, Alabama that resulted in him being arrested and jailed. Later that day eight clergymen responded with the statement “A Call For Unity” in The Birmingham News requesting he ends all of his protests. A few days later, King created a response to the statement in the form of an open letter. In this letter Martin Luther King Jr. develops a well proposed argument in response to the eight clergymen who published the statement. Throughout the letter, King uses rhetorical appeal in order to give the viewer a sense of King’s credibility,his emotions, and also his logic on why he does what he does. King uses ethos by showing common interests, pathos by creating an emotional response to his viewers by justifying his unjust experiences, and logos by using logic from past events that happened in history.
... He addresses his audience with honesty and respect, without making his readers feel like they are being vanquished. Instead, they were being made aware of what their actions were doing to society, and that they could make a difference. Dr. King uses a very strong pathos while speaking to his audience.
Martin Luther King Jr. makes excellent use of all three of Aristotle’s appeals to respond to the clergymen’s accusations. However, he took most advantage of the emotional appeal in order to move the reader and to be able to capture the attention of his audience. Dr. King was one of the greatest speakers in history. He was able to move millions of people with his powerful speeches. Once again, he is successful.
Martin Luther King, Jr., born on January 15, 1929, was well known for his nonviolent movement to bring justice and to an end to the segregation of the people in the United States back in the 1950s. With King being the leader of a peaceful protest, it failed to bring equally to the colored people. Martin Luther King, Jr. was labeled as an “outsider” who was “hatred and violence” and that his actions were “unwise and untimely” from the Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen (clergymen). In response, on the day of April 16, 1963, he wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail to declare and defense his movement was not “unwise and untimely” at all. To analyze his points, King used the powerful literary devices of pathos- use of an emotional appeal.ethos-
To begin with, Dr Martin Luther King influenced his audience through the use of written techniques. A written technique applied in the speech is repetition, which is the restatement of words or phrases.
The first reason is exigence, or a problem that arises that a speaker needs to address persuasively. In the case of Dr. King, this particular situation was the enduring Civil Rights Movement and the rampant racism causing it in the United States. His need to reveal his vision of equality was his way of combating this problem. The next reason pertains to the audience, and Dr. King’s audience was massive. The audience ranged from those who were directly affected by the struggle – the sanitation workers of Memphis, to those who co-labored – other African Americans, and to those who could affect change – people with the right to vote and change laws within the country . The final reason involves the constraints, or the simultaneous events and other exigencies that affect the rhetorical situation. In this situation, the constraints could be the reality of the death threats against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his fellow activists. The death of these leaders could potentially stifle the movement. For these reasons, I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is successful in his intended purpose. Although he did not personally witness the triumph of Civil Rights Movement due to his ironic assassination (ironic considering he talks about the longevity of life on the eve of this assassination) =, Dr. Martin Luther King’s use of rhetoric in his I Have a Dream and I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speeches
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
Dr.King builds his argument to persuade his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam war.He uses rhetorical devices such as ethos and pathos to move the audiences emotions and establish credibility among the audience wanting the audience to not be silence in addition convince them that the war in Vietnam is unjust plus persuades them to take a stand.
King peacefully pleads for racial tolerance and the end of segregation by appealing to the better side of white Americans. His attempt to persuade America about the justice of his cause, and to gain support for the civil rights movement, was emotionally moving. He spoke to all races, but his rhetoric was patriotic, and culturally similar to, and focused on African-Americans. He was able to make practical use of a history many Americans are proud of. The use of repetition reinforced his words, making it simpler and more straightforward to follow.
Overall, Martin Luther King’s purpose of this speech was to unite African Americans and Caucasians to fight together for the same cause, equal rights for all people no matter the color of their skin. To successfully convey this purpose, King employed several tools of persuasion in his speech. He did indeed present an example of what could qualify as the "greatest demonstration" of arguments for true freedom for all Americans. He employed the techniques of ethos, pathos and logos with such skill that his audience likely was only aware of a single steering man towards a national unity.
King finally tries to convince his audience that American involvement in the Vietnam War is unjust through the use of personal moral reasoning. Dr. King writes in paragraph 3, “I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social changes comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.” Through this Dr. King conveys the idea that the Vietnam War is wrong in general;violent actions will not solve problems, instead they will be made worse. Then Dr. King states, “... I knew that i could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today- my own government.” Through the use of this statement Dr. King conveys that though he supports the idea of change coming through nonviolent actions, his own country has gone to war killing innocent people and creating devastating destruction. By using contrast and contradictions, Dr. King shows that the Vietnam War is unjust by first letting the audience know that problems cannot be solved through violence but then contradicts himself when he says that his country has gone on war showing how it is unjust. Dr. King uses his moral reasons and how the War contradicts them making the
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most notable speeches in American history, at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King started off his famous “I Have a Dream” speech by stating the impact it would have on America’s civil rights movement: “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation” (King 1). With knowledge of rhetoric and persuasion, King had a substantial impact on the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of ethos, pathos, and logos appeals enable King to persuade the audience to achieve equality.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent civil rights leader, delivered a powerful speech at the historic March on Washington. The speech uses several literary techniques to engage the listener. In the speech, King especially likes to use repetition and metaphor to convey his ideas. These devices are the foundation of King's unique and effective style.
The Vietnam War began November 1, 1955 and ended on April 30, 1975. It began as an internal Vietnam conflict over communism, which then later introduced U.S involvement in 1959. The United States had good intentions for their involvement, which was to stop the spread of communism to other countries. However, in the end, the war was a horrible blood bath for both countries in which there was no real victory for any country that was involved. Towards the mid-end of the war, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech on 4 April 1967 professing his desire to end the war peacefully. Therefore, he gave this speech in order to convince America there is a way to end the war peacefully. Martin Luther King Jr. successfully convinces his audience that there