Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

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There are many speeches given by many different kinds of people. From football players to right activists to presidents. For example, a right activist named, Martin Luther King, gave the “I have a dream” speech at the 1963 Washington D.C. Civil rights march, Martin Luther King gave the speech with the intentions to change the way the United States viewed African American people, he wanted to end racism, segregation, and Luther King also wanted to give the right to vote for African Americans. Thousands of civil right supporters gathered around to listen to this fabulous speech from the Lincoln memorial steps. While Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech he used many fallacies. These fallacies are: Diversion or red herring, …show more content…

Appeal to emotion is when the speaker manipulates the audience by using their emotions, just so they could win an argument, especially if the speaker has evidence. Throughout the speech, Luther King uses appeal to emotion many times. For example, when Martin luther king says “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.” (King 1) On this quote Luther King is using appeal to emotion not only because he wants to express his dreams to the people, but because he also knows does does it feel when a black person is judged by their color of …show more content…

Straw man is when a person changes the person's actual position for something way out the real thing. For example, when MLK said “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination; one hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity; one hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.” (King 1). In this quote, Martin Luther King uses the fallacy of straw man, because he started saying how the black people is not being treated fairly and he wants the people to realize this is a enormous