Martin Luther King Jr Figures Of Speech

In a mass of people, packed in on all sides, with the Lincoln Memorial ahead. The smell of sweat as all these people are out under the hot summer sun, waiting. Dead silence, as the one at the podium prepares to give a speech that will change many people's lives and minds. Using powerful wording, pathos and ethos Martin Luther King Jr. changed peoples lives forever.
Dr. King used many figures of speech to represent the unfairness of how people of color were treated in the U.S. These figures of speech had powerful meanings to them, and the figures of speech quoted here are just a few of his many powerful phrases. Martin Luther King exclaimed with conviction that the “Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material

King made sure to bring attention to his ideals on how everyone should be treated and included. And also how he felt about and for the affected peoples, including himself. Martin Luther King exclaimed “Go back to Mississippi. Go back to Alabama. Go back to South Carolina. Go back to Georgia. Go back to Louisiana. Go back to the slums and ghettos of our Northern cities”(King 50). Putting emphasis on the many states makes a connection with those who have connections with the mentioned places demonstrating ethos and using this repetition with the many different places will rile up the crowds demonstrating pathos. With conviction Dr. King preached, “This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day”(King 51). Not only does he preach this faith as something they all can experience together equally as they would all treat each other with equality, calling upon ethos, and with his passion about how together they can all experience the trials and tribulations of the world together regardless of race, which shows pathos. Dr. King

These references can make many different connections to the many different types of peoples, especially since the majority of those who had attended were familiar with Abraham Lincoln and “The Lord”. Martin Luther King stated that “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation”(King 48). With this starting statement it showed exactly what Dr. King's speech would be about, those who came for him to preach about equality would have become excited and nervous, which is an example of pathos. And using that statement makes a connection with most in the audience as most of them would be familiar with Abraham Lincoln, an example of ethos. Martin Luther King stated that “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” Not only is making a connection with all members of the audience as he spoke about how the constitution was signed where all men regardless of race would be guaranteed the rights of life, an example of ethos. And with his powerful words on how