Martin Luther King Jr's Four Freedom Speech

It is without a doubt that Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt are great men that have impacted our nation in an immensely positive way. Each man different from the next. Each man made an impact in a different way. Each man fought for a different cause and had a different reason to speak. Each man had words that moved a nation. The ability to publicly speak is a major factor in why those three men succeeded with such great measures. King brought people together from around the nation to raise up against the majority and fight for integration. Roosevelt convinced our nation to become involved in a war that many were we opposed to. Kennedy worked to unify the political parties of America with an overall goal to help

Using them to encourage an audience to follow your idea can be one the strongest forms of persuasion. Kennedy, Roosevelt and King frequently used pathos to create a more thought engaging experience. Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the Four Freedoms Speech in an attempt to convince the U.S to join in the war against Nazi Germany. An ever so fearful time in hearts of Americans. Roosevelt called on this emotion of fear in hopes that it would invoke something in his audience. He starts his speech strong on the path to invoking emotion, within the first few sentences Roosevelt brings up the topic of the nation’s security being threatened. Leaving his audience with a looming feeling of disconcert. Another instance of pathos in the Four Freedoms Speech occurs when Roosevelt mentions children. By talking about children it brings a sort of maternal feeling. Instead of this issue effecting strangers from across the globe, but it could have a negative impact on our own children. Martin Luther King Jr. also used children. Kings use of children differs from Roosevelt’s use of children. The Why We Can’t Wait speech has entirely different structure than the other two speeches, it is told similar to a story. The entire speech is based off of African American children. The first two paragraphs of the speech pathos is called upon multiple times. In a condensed version the speech’s beginning is a series of sentences filled with imagery. Telling a

Kennedy, King, and Roosevelt all had a great sense of ethics. They had an even greater sense when it came to using ethos in their speeches. Kennedy makes up for the lack of pathos in the Inaugural by questioning the ethics of his audience. Ethos is used quite frequently, yet an example where it weighs heavier than others is in paragraph eight. The paragraph starts off with pathos describing people trying to “break the bonds of mass misery”. Then it moves into Ethos when Kennedy says that he is going to pledge the nation’s best efforts to help them. Not for the opportunity to gain more votes or other countries are doing it so we should to, but because it is the right thing to do. Roosevelt uses the phrase “decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all…” twice in sentences that follow each other. Without even knowing what that quote corresponds with ethos is noticeable because of the diction he uses. Roosevelt applies ethos even farther then diction he uses, the instance of ethics is found in paragraph thirty-one. The respect that comes with our internal affairs and the respect for our foreign affairs. Roosevelt ends his example of ethos by saying “And the justice of morality must and will win in the end”. King used ethos while speaking about the parts African American history that got neglected from the history books. Is it ethical to oppress a race by leaving out their history? This