Martin Luther King was an African-American Baptist minister who also was an activist and one of the most known spokespersons and leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech and wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which was very impactful to the civil rights movement. Both of these texts from Dr. King consist of the same rhetorical devices but are used in different ways. In the “I Have a Dream” speech, King uses rhetorical devices like the basics: Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and plenty more. In this speech, he uses these devices to show the pain and struggle African Americans went through and how he has hope for the world that it can all change. King brings up his future children by stating “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” which uses the rhetorical device known as pathos, this is where he uses that to emphasize his hope for equality and unity. …show more content…
When talking about ethos in his speech, Martin Luther King said, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” the overall effect of what he said was to remind people that even though they were emancipated, they were not free yet. Now talking about ethos King says “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred, we must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline”. He urged the listeners to pursue freedom with dignity and discipline and avoid hatred. Dr. King also used the repetition of “ I have a dream,” a compelling phrase that listeners can remember through his