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Pathos In I Have A Dream Speech

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“I Have a Dream” is a great speech. The author, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- known for his work in the Civil Rights movement during the 60s – just openly addresses the nation on the state of Negro affairs. The purpose of the speech is to stimulate change and rekindle a battered flame in both black and white denizens’ of the United States. With this in mind, he makes it known that those who truly want it must accept change in a non-violent way. When it comes to the audience, the demographic of whom he means to address is very general; however, given the speech was presented in Washington, it is a possibility that the main goal was to reach law and policy creators who work within the nation’s capital. Because of his audience, Dr. King made sure to address his speech to all Americans. Because of this, King managed to effectively express civil rights issues using the rhetorical strategies of pathos and logos, to an audience that had a plethora of ethnicities and creeds.

King’s speech channels many of his personal thoughts and experiences. For instance: Dr. King utilizes pathos by relating his speech to his dreams and family. King states, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be …show more content…

King’s words are confident and purposeful. He was very aware of the demographic who attended his speech, and for this reason, he is mindful of his wording to avoid hurting his integrity with this audience. Using pathos and logos, Dr. King was able to inspire his followers to fight for change. He pointed out how flawed America was because it did not follow the principles it was founded upon and he used pathos to emotionally inspire people to take action for the sake of their family and future. His speech was so moving that it pushed the government to finally take action on civil rights and, because of its impact, would later be the reason he was awarded a Nobel Peace

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The “I Have a Dream” speech is well known throughout history to be one of the most famous speeches to be on the subject of civil rights. Throughout the entirety of “I Have a Dream”, Dr. King uses pathos more than logos. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.”

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To achieve this, he used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to pathos and repetition. His passionate tone flowed through these strategies, increasing their persuasive power on the people and encouraging them to follow/listen to his message on racial injustice. While pathos elicits an emotional response from the audience to make them more accepting of King’s ideas, repetition structures the speech and emphasizes key ideas for the audience to take away from listening. These two techniques played a crucial role in furthering his purpose and in provoking a powerful response from the audience that made this speech memorable and awe-inspiring. To this day, King’s speech remains one of the most famous and influential speeches in

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He also appeals to Pathos in his speech, where he includes his own family hopes that americans can relate to him. As a father he dreams “ 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 the content of their character”. (King) He hopes his children will live in better world than he did. He appeals to pathos through a concerning father.

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