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Rhetorical Devices In I Have A Dream Speech Essay

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Rhetorical devices have been used by leaders to persuade people to do things for a long time. One leader that used rhetorical devices was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was an activist of the Civil Rights movement in 1963 that helped end segregation and was considered a great speaker and writer. In his writings and and speeches, Dr King used different rhetorical devices to make his arguments impactful and meaningful. Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, surrounded by 20,000 supporters of the Civil Rights movement, is a great example of him using persuasive rhetorical devices based on setting and audience. Some examples of rhetorical devices he uses in this speech are parallelism, repetition, analogy, and charged language. …show more content…

King using rhetorical devices based on setting and audience is the “letter from Birmingham Jail.” In the letter, he is in jail for a peacefully protesting and is writing to clergymen who criticized him. Some examples of the use of rhetorical devices in this speech include parallelism, rhetorical questions, allusions, and antithesis’. An example of an antithesis and logos in this letter is, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (Paragraph 4) In this letter, Dr. King relies on a use of logos along with a bit of pathos to make his argument. He uses logos to help prove his argument using logic. An example of parallelism and pathos in the letter is, “Wait! It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This wait has almost always meant never.” (Paragraph 13) These are just some of the ways he uses rhetorical devices to make his speeches so incredible. In speeches and writings, Dr. King used many rhetorical devices to persuade people to join his noble cause. Rhetorical devices are have been used and will be continued to be used by leaders to convince people of an argument. When used correctly, rhetorical devices can vastly improve one’s writing and speaking

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Besides the use of pathos, King uses repetition to enhance the effectiveness of his argument. In King’s speech he

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In Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, he uses pathos and rhetorical questions to appeal towards the readers. Pathos is showed in King’s letter when he says, “Too long has out beloved southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue.” (7) This quote supports pathos because King is saying we should be living in a world of dialogue not monologue, also he talks about his beloved southland. This makes the readers have sympathy for the tragic issue. Rhetorical is used to appeal towards the readers in Kings letter when he states the question, “But can this assertion be logically made?”

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MLK also uses rhetorical devices to persuade the audience. MLK states In Letter To Birmingham Jail, “Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth?” (King 7) MLK used rhetorical questions so the audience would have to think to themselves. MLK is showing the audience that by doing these actions is the only way they will be heard.

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Literary Devices of Martin Luther King Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail effectively disproved the points made by the Alabama Clergymen in their public statement that attacked the actions taken by African Americans, including King himself, whom participated in demonstrations against racism. Literary devices were King’s fuel in this piece, advancing his counter arguments and aiding key persuasive elements. His use of diction created a deep sense of imagery that had the power to put the reader into a place of true agreement. Hypophora added logical bases that supported King’s words and his arguments.

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In these texts, King effectively persuades his audiences using pathos and logos. In Martin Luther King Jr. – “Letter from Birmingham Jail” he captures both pathos and logos. Dr. King

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In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” it can easily be argued that King used many rhetorical devices such as anaphora and tone in order to further persuade his audience to take action on behalf of the Civil Rights movement. Through copious examples, the reader is presented with King’s effort to use repetition in order to drive his point as well as being presented with the changing tone of his writing which allows the reader to experience a shift in emotions and urgency throughout the

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The Letter from Birmingham Jail and the I have a Dream Speech, both written by Martin Luther King Jr., explain the same message to people in two different ways. The Letter from Birmingham Jail was to write a letter to defend the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. He wrote this because he wants African Americans to come together and peacefully protest the unjust laws that are in place. On the other hand, his speech was to a large group of citizens, black and white, fighting for freedom, equality, justice and love. He used many rhetorical devices in his speech and letter that compared the two, and to show the differences in a clear way.

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One of the main reasons that this is referred to as a rhetoric is the fact that it was written by Martin Luther King in an intellectual and inventive way not just for the

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Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential African-American activists in American History and was a key participant in the Civil Rights movement, the goal of which was to provide full civil rights to all rights in America. MLK has written many, many speeches and letters in favor of the Civil Rights movement in America, the most famous of them being his legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech and the monumental “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. To attempt to gain support for his cause, MLK employs the use of emotional appeals, also known as pathos, and logical appeals, also known as logos, which aid to stir emotion and reasoning in the listener. It is more than obvious that MLK tends to tug at the heartstrings of his listeners with his emotionally charged language essential to his success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses more powerful and plentiful examples of pathos in his literature, examples of which being his “I Have a Dream” speech and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, than logos due to the more powerful emotional connection they carry which can convince his listeners to sympathize with his civil rights movement.

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In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech he uses many different rhetorical devices. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. These purposes can be similar, or different. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing.

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Shortly afterwards he was both criticized and applauded for his actions in the protest. During this time, King decided to write a letter to address those who questioned his actions. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King effectively used the rhetorical strategy of describing to achieve his purpose of defending his reason for protesting, a model that can be applied to the upcoming portfolio project. Rhetorical Strategy In his letter, King uses several rhetorical strategies, however one that stood out to me if the strategy of describing.

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In 1962 President John F. Kennedy held a press conference in which he informed the audience on his stance for the rising steel prices. Kennedy not only wanted to inform the audience, he wanted to get them on his side of the argument. He wanted to show the audience that the rising steel prices were going to have a negative impact on the nation. To do this Kennedy used some of the rhetoric strategies and tools. He used periodic sentences, anaphora, and diction.

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Dr. King was a Baptist minister that was extremely involved in trying to end racial discrimination. Dr. King’s speech is known as “a masterpiece of rhetoric” by scholars. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech makes good use of the rhetorical triangle. The rhetorical triangle is composed of ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is convincing the audience that the author

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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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Martin Luther King 's uses various literary devices such as metaphors, personification, similes, and imagery in his speech so that his audience would be able to better understand and visual what he is saying. An example of a metaphor in King 's speech is when he compares the deprivation of African American rights with "a bad check that has come back from the bank of injustice marked with insufficient funds". He states that we must cash a check that will give us the riches of freedom and security of justice. This metaphor is referring to the freedom and rights that African American 's deserve and are promised but are not given. An example of personification in his speech is "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

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