In 1968, times are tough and people like Martin Luther King Jr. are fighting for civil rights for African-Americans. On April 4, King is brutally shot and killed. The civil rights leader whose strategy was nonviolence, fell victim to a violent attack. Robert F. Kennedy delivers a speech later that day with the purpose of honoring Martin Luther King Jr., consoling americans, and letting them know that we can get through this. The key to any effective speech is a thoughtful mix of ethos, logos, and pathos based on the designated audience. Robert F. Kennedy did exactly this when giving his speech. For the speaker to be seen as credible, they have to employ ethos into their speech. Robert F. Kennedy does this when he says, “... I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same …show more content…
Kennedy has experienced the loss of a loved one and has worked through it. This helps the audience feel as though they can do the same. Robert F. Kennedy goes light on the ethos in this circumstance because he doesn’t want the speech to be about him, but instead about Martin Luther King Jr. Robert F. Kennedy uses a large amount of logos in his speech to achieve the purpose of offering Americans a solution to moving forward in their lives. For instance, he says “We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across