ipl-logo

Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Speech

869 Words4 Pages

It was the end of summer. For almost half of a year, thousands of people had been fighting for their rights, battling against all of the nay sayers to do the impossible and not be treated as inferior. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. joined all of these people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, to come together in a peaceful manner demanding justice, freedom, and equality. To demand these three qualities of life, King told of a dream, a wonderful dream, in his speech, “I Have a Dream.” In this speech, he told that now was the time, the time to change America’s view on equality and justice. By using rhetorical terms, King was able to bring this feeling of change to the audience, which allowed for a racial revolution to take place. …show more content…

He states that “They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.” This is his logic, in which society can’t stand together strong and united if one person is not free. In this quote, he is trying to get people to understand that united we stand, divided we fall, and if we stay divided and do not fix our mistakes, society will crumble into a pile of rubble that no one will choose to salvage. King also states that his dream “is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” This conveys his idea of unity, by stating that it was not just the blacks dream to be free and have justice, but a whole nation. By stating that the whole nation has this same dream, he is not singling out just one race. He is including everyone, which shows that everyone is in it …show more content…

One of his main allusions, is alluding to the Declaration of Independence. In his speech, he states that, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men a created equal.” In this quote, he is alluding to the statement the founding fathers made when they said that everyone would be treated as one, and no one would be treated as less. By referencing the declaration, he gains credibility, because everyone in the United States looks up to the founding fathers as heroes. By referencing them, he brings across a feeling of, “The founding fathers did, so could I.” Also, King alludes to Abraham Lincoln throughout his speech. He states that they are standing in the shadow of a great American, who first gave hope to the African Americans at the end of the civil war. He also states that by standing on the Lincoln Memorial, they are standing “on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.” He says this, because Lincoln brought freedom to the slaves and gave them a chance, and now they can do it again in his shadow. They can bring that same feeling of hope that the slaves felt when the Emancipation Proclamation was

Show More
Related
579 Words | 3 Pages

The Emancipation Proclamation signed by the same great American serves as a fundament for the freedom of all colored citizens of the United States. That is why Mr. King intentionally refers to the significance of this document. He also references the Declaration of Independence to evoke authority into his speech. King also quotes the “unalienable rights” for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. He is stating that the American government has neglected

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

In the speech King shows in this quote that the Negroes should be free. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

Pathos is a very key ingredient in the process of persuading people, and while everybody tugs at people’s heartstrings, King used it to change the opinion of all that remain on the fence between inequality and equality. “Let us not wallow in the valley of of despair.” That sounds like torture, and that's why many fought for black rights, it sounded like a life of pure pain and suffering, causing many to hate the idea of blacks being forced to endure such discriminative horrors. He of course doesn’t use all negative words, but words of hope and positive thoughts, “An oasis of freedom and justice… a beautiful symphony of brotherhood... we will be free one day.”

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

He demonstrates this by applying Abraham Lincoln ’s quote, “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free” (31) and that of Thomas Jefferson’s “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” (31). King specifically used these to his advantages in order to not only remind the clergymen how and who helped this country came to be, but the explicit connotation of those words. The effect will be significant enough for the audience to relate and reflect how a nation can be capable of great damage from this foreseen

Read More
1308 Words | 6 Pages

King begins his speech speaking about justice and freedom; “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom” (1). He includes the nation in his speech to agree with his argument they everyone should have the same equal rights. By including the nation King can firmly state his idea and people are more likely to agree with it. He also discusses how nonviolence is a crucial piece of peaceful protesting; “Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek” (3). King uses this viewpoint to get the nation to be against violent forms of protesting because it does not send the correct message.

Read More
470 Words | 2 Pages

King used powerful and expressive language in order to magnetize sentimental affinity to his listeners, such as: “This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.” “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.” “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” King repeatedly used the line “ I have a dream” towards the end of the speech to trigger the emotions of his audience and give them hope. He spoke this line with an extreme emphasis as it encourages his audience to change “today” instead of being contradistinguished against.

Read More
816 Words | 4 Pages

By repeating the phrase “I Have a Dream,” he stresses the sense of hope and sympathy for Negroes during that time. He also stated that the “Negro…finds himself in exile in his own land.” This phrase shows compassion and shows that he empathizes with the unfair treatment and alienation of African Americans. He also used highly

Read More
473 Words | 2 Pages

He also states, “One hundred years later” then, goes into detail about how when the founding fathers gave us our independence, they also promised us equality and freedom for all men. He also makes a point to show how they promised us this, and we as a nation still haven't achieved it. Lastly, he uses allusions such as the Declaration of Independence, and the Bible to show us the importance of his speech. King alludes to the Declaration of Independence to reference the founding fathers' intent to give all humans equal rights when he states, “This note was a 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.” He also states, “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

This line hits deep to the heart, he wanted to emphasize that the negros have been freed but yet still not seen and their voice is still not heard. The streets they grew up in are now put up with signs that say “Only Whites.” They have been put down and have taken beatings from random bystanders. He has a dream that will

Read More
528 Words | 3 Pages

Amids creating his speech, Martin Luther King later use an emotional appeal to establish pathos. Amongst the various examples he use to draw sentiments from the audiences, King attracted the white people by using their empathy that are hidden inside of them; he stated, “ one hundred years later, the Negro [are] still is not free.” after being granted their equal rights of justice ( King 1). In the process of persuading the audiences, King is using emotional appeal by attempting to let the public know the feelings that were felt by the African Americans when they didn’t receive the treatment they deserve and their promise of equality forgotten, buried within the society. This will evoke a light bulb of some sort into some of the audience to place themselves in the people who are in this circumstances to experience their segregation.

Read More
155 Words | 1 Pages

By expressing his emotions on the subject of racism, Kings persuasive

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

The main idea of his speech is that all people were created equal and, although this is no longer the case nowadays, King felt it must be the case for the future. He argued peacefully, yet passionately and powerfully. In preparation for the speech, he studied the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence and he alludes to all three in his address. The intensity of King’s speech is built through parallelism, metaphors, bold statements and rhythmic repetitions:

Read More
544 Words | 3 Pages

On August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most influential speeches of all time. He spoke to thousands of people, and on one of the most debated issues of its time. It spoke to the hearts of many, and was a precursor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He used Lincoln’s ground-breaking Emancipation Proclamation; the Founding Father’s Declaration of Independence, that first broke our ties to Britain as we forged out on our own; and the patriotic song My Country ‘Tis of Thee. Martin Luther King’s

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

King talks about how the time is now, how nobody has time to just stay still and cool off. He reinforces the idea of how long they have waited to gain rights, to gain true freedom. The American Dream could all be changed, if we all would work together. All king wanted for people to see was how foolish we were all acting towards eachother, and how foolish it would be for us to wait for things to get better. You cannot just have hope, you have to act on it.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

On the 28th day of August in 1963, Martin Luther King would make history through his “I Have A Dream” speech. It would be one of the first steps taken to fight the struggle for freedom and justice experienced by African-Americans in the United States, a ‘free’ and ‘equal’ country that is supposed to provide opportunities for all. Still, nearly 50 years later on July 19, 2013, former US President, Barack Obama would continue King ’s fight. Both Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and former President Barack Obama’s “Remarks on Trayvon Martin Ruling” speech speak about the struggle for freedom and justice with their main strength being their use of rhetorical devices to support their arguments and exude their beliefs.

Read More

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Speech

Related Topics

Open Document