King begins his speech with an ethos reference to America’s great emancipator. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation” (2). Talking about how Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves establishes the starting point for King to describe how “the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and its chains of discrimination”(3). It is this key idea that equality and freedom have yet to be realized, that fuels King’s transition to an emotional delivery. Lincoln symbolizes the freeing of the slaves, the war that pitted brother against brother, the fight to abolish slavery and the first symbol making the colored and whites
The iconic speech “I have a Dream”, originally named “Normalcy, Never Again”, is dubbed to be one of the greatest speech of all time. It was expertly delivered by civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The speech was delivered during the March on Washington on the 28th of August, 1963. Dr King urgently called for the end of discrimination and racial prejudice between the Americans with different colour. He delivered his speech with finesse, inspiring and persuading his audience through the use of written, audio codes and body language. The written techniques Dr King utilized were repetition and metaphor and in addition, audio codes, which were volume and pace.
King uses repetition to signify critical points like freedom and racial equality, for instance, when he says, “Let freedom ring” and “But one hundred years later the Negro is not free”. Repetition is effective in providing a memorable and lasting effect on the audience. King uses allusion of past vintage declaration, speeches and folklore to connect all races when delivering his speech as a way of reinforcing his primary message of freedom and racial equality. He also uses personification to denote that African American are not struggling against an individual, but a segregation system. The use of personification is effective in making the system being discussed interesting and to create a need for comprehending how it functions. In a considerable list of rhetoric devices employed, King uses euphemism in is speech to show the extent of the problems and dissatisfaction suffered by African Americans. For instance, he calls the situation in America then “shameful conditions” and “unspeakable horrors” under the police. Here, euphemism has been used to criticize and to call the situation as it
The most common rhetorical device used in the speeches was an anaphora. An anaphora is a phrase that is repeated frequently. King repeated multiple phrases in all three speeches evaluated. In “I Have a Dream”, King repeats the phrase “one-hundred years later”. He uses this phrase in emphasize that much time had gone by and yet, there still hadn’t been change. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”. King also uses allusions like “... we’ve come to our nations capital to cash a check” and “... the bank of justice is bankrupt”. This helps give the audience a better imagine of what King was referring to. In “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, he used an abundance of anaphors. The phrase “I would” was repeated seven times. He talks about how if God asked him what age he’d like to live in he gave many places and people he would want to see. King ended each place he’d go with “I won’t stop there”. It is thought that this was Kings’ way of saying he wasn’t going to give up on fighting for what is right. He continues with saying he is thankful to be in the 20th century so he could fight for a cause. There was also an example of antithesis, which is making a connection between two ideas or things. He used the famous words from J.F.K “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” In “A Time to Break Silence”, an anaphora was also used. King used
On August 28th Martin Luther King Jr. gave the “I have a dream speech” to a large group of people for the civil right movements, which took place at the Lincoln memorial. “The peaceful rally was the largest assembly for a redress of grievances that the capital had ever seen, and King was the last speaker,” (MLK Jr. Speech History.com) it had gathered about 250,000 people. The “I have a dream speech” had become the second most memorable speech besides the Gettysburg express. King used the rhetorical talents he had developed as a Baptist preacher to show how, as he put it, the “Negro is still not free.” (MLK Jr. Speech History.com) When MLK Jr. started his speech he started by saying, “I have a dream,” he boomed over the crowd stretching from
I am amazed by the eloquence with each successive reading. Dr. King composed this essay as a response to eight Southern Christian ministers who wrote a letter to the newspaper criticizing King's nonviolent protests and urging him to let the battle over segregation be settled in the courts. They call King an extremist, and question the urgency of his call for racial equality. In a deliberate tone, King categorically answers their criticisms. King knows his audience, and constructs a reply that not only addresses their criticisms but elevates his cause. By taking the time to answer his critics (or persecutors, as he is in prison) with patience, logic and intelligence, as opposed to retaliating with more rhetoric, he creates a work that transcends
In the essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written by Martin Luther King, Jr., the author writes about the Christian movement for Human Rights that he lead was reasonable and in good quality. In this essay, while King sits in a jail cell he responds to a statement written by a disbeliever of his Christian movement claiming that the movement was unwise and untimely. King goes on to explain how Black people were treated unfair and that the movement was not unwise and that it was conducting at just the right time. In this essay, I will discuss ways King used ethos to create a strong argument about this situation.
Throughout the course of his speech, King makes allusions to multiple texts, such as the Bible, the song “My country tis of thee,” and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. From the Bible, King states that “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (paragraph 13; Amos 5:24) Based on this quote, King encourages the end to inequality and the beginning of justice and righteousness. From Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, King uses that quote “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” (paragraph 17) Based on this quote, King emphasizes that the nation should rise up and stand up for their rights. Also from the Declaration of Independence, King states that all men have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (paragraph 4) Based on this quote, King stresses that all men, which consists of both black and white men possess these unalienable rights by God. King uses a few phrases “My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!” from the song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” by Samuel Francis Smith.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. calls for an end to racism in the United States by delivering a speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In Martin Luther King's speech he motivates people to take peaceful action in combatting discrimination by using vivid imagery and emphasizing how long African Americans have been waiting for discrimination and segregation to end.
The art of King's words in his speech are so articulate and marvelous that sets off the mode and tone in harmony throughout the text. "Lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean," "dramatize a shameful condition," "unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and "bright day of justice emerging." Magnificent, promissory, sacred obligation, sweltering, racial justice, dignity, inextricably bound, unspeakable horrors, exalted, prodigious, and spiritual are just some words found in the speech. Despite their different lettering, they all share something in common. From the author's choice of these words, it tells you that this speech was inspiring, uplifting, and bold. The style of the author's words makes it easier to understand for the audience to listen and not misinterpret it the opposite way. Thus, making it easier for the author to persuade his audience too. A win-win for both