How Does Martin Luther King Use Ethos Pathos Logos

Rhetorical and literary devices has been utilized to persuade an audience throughout history. In Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Frederick Douglass’ “Address to the Massachusetts Anti-slavery society” speech, they articulate the injustices the black man has experienced over the years by exercising allusion and anaphora. King and Douglass, both civil rights activist, desire action from society; they seek true equality for their black brethren. King and Douglass use allusion to create a recollection in the minds of their audience in order to reinforce their intents. King states, “five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” referring to Abraham Lincoln.

“What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul?”Lyndon B Johnson wrote American Promise to America and Congress to persuade them to pass voting rights. Lyndon B Johnson uses metaphors, parallel structure and anaphora to persuade his audience that all people should be equal. LBJ uses anaphora to show his point in equality and give prominence to the idea of all men are created equal. “There is no”(paragraph 12). This uses pathos to show that this is an American problem,not a negro, southern or northern problem.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses periodic sentences, syntaxes, diction, and allusions to address his beliefs on the many struggles African Americans faced, his thoughts on just and unjust laws, influences that had an impact on African Americans, and the callous nature of the citizens, a prevalent part of society

Malcolm X utilizes repetition and metaphors to appeal to the emotions of his young audience in order to rouse them to anger. At the same time, these devices help portray the evil nature of whites. In the same way, King employs repetition and metaphors in order to convince African Americans to unite in order to further strengthen the resolve of the peaceful Civil Rights Movement. Although different in their approaches, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X both use repetition and metaphors to promote their common goal: freedom for African Americans.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech had a great deal of logos and pathos appeals to persuade his audience to speak out against segregation and to give all men the rights they deserve. He often gave a clear line of reasoning supported by evidence in his speech, like when he says: “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.”... America has defaulted on this promissory note, ... given the Negro people a bad check… which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” (King para. 4)

In paragraph 15, Dr. King's rhetoric helped to advance his purpose in writing the letter. Dr. King uses logos in paragraph 15 to show his reasoning on the matter of justice, in order to move people to act on this important matter. This paragraph helps the reader to see the importance of "acting quickly" in regards to justice because in that time, justice was hard to achieve. As Dr. king states "for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights". Several people have expressed a sense of inessential thinking towards the matter. For people who have "never felt the stinging darts of segregation" it is easy for them "to say, "Wait", and this is why Dr. King has to stress his point to another level in order for them to understand.

In his 1963 speech “I Have a Dream”, King atop the Lincoln memorial orates his vision of what America should be. King does this in a way, that mimics a lawyer giving an opening statement, by laying out a clear beginning, middle, and end. King understands that by doing this he is appealing to his audience on a rhetorical level, allowing him to reach is audience in a pathetic way. King structures his essay in two ways, first he has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and secondly through his speech he includes several rhetorical devices that allow him to strengthen his argument. To start his speech King alludes to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, symbolically placing himself on the same level as Lincoln.

By using these rhetorical devices, King successfully inspired emotion in his audience and gave them hope for a possible bright future. We can see that Martine Luther King use several rhetorical devices within the speech to grab attention of the people who were engaged with the unjust oppression. First of all, in the beginning of his speech, he made a connection alluded to Lincoln’s speech ‘‘Five score years ago…’’ (Line 2.1, page1) this line referred to the Gettysburg Address, presenting by the United States president. King used it to enhance credibility primarily because of Lincoln’s high position related with civil rights.

was able to give hope about the future to his audience by using logos, ethos and pathos. Because of his background in civil rights, he uses ethos to capture his crowds attention. Also, he shows us how logically flawed America was for it did not follow the principles it was based on. In conclusion, he uses suffering to emotionally inspire Americans to take a stand and do something for their future and families. His speech was so persuading and rhetorically satisfactory that it motivated the government take action on civil rights in America.

The Civil Rights Movement was a big thing for the United states and we as Americans will always remember Martin Luther King Jr. for helping lead the people and inspire change and bring hope. The speech “ I Have a Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an important gathering of people at the Lincoln Memorial. A huge crowd gathered to listen to his powerful speech which helped to inspire change. Martin Luther King also wrote a letter to eight white clergymen named “Letter From Birmingham Jail” the letter was written in in his jail cell which he was in for marching and protests. In both of these texts Dr. King used pathos and logos to inspire change and reach out to the people during the civil rights movements.

Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech shows powerful examples of logos and pathos. His effectiveness relies heavily on his usage of these two ways to explain the pain and suffering of segregation. By him capturing his true life’s reality through pity and credible sources allows him to become successful in attempting to end the racism crisis. King states that, “when our republic was writing the Declaration of Independence, they were making 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.” Logos is the prime example of King using this event of writing the Declaration of Independence.

Hidden yet Effective Rhetoric In his peaceful war against segregation laws, Martin Luther King Jr. uses several rhetorical techniques to support his argument. Metaphors and repetition are two of the numerous techniques used to emotionally affect his audience, the racist government and church members accusing King’s demonstrations being “unwise and untimely”. Parallel structure is used to illustrate an antithesis in the first paragraph “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” which answers the opposition’s argument that what is being done is unwise and untimely. Because the parallel structure addresses both of the groups in Kings argument, the government(the oppressor) and African Americans(the

During the era of the civil rights movements in the 60s, among the segregation, racism, and injustice against the blacks, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial to deliver one of the greatest public speeches for freedom in that decade. In Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech he effectively uses ethos, diction and powerful metaphors to express the brutality endured by African American people. Yet his most important method of reaching his audience, and conveying his enduring message of equality and freedom for the whole nation was his appeal to pathos. With these devices, King was able to move thousands of hearts and inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Opening his speech Martin Luther King Jr. sets up his credibility with his use of ethos, referring to the Declaration of Independence saying, “This note was a promise that all men… would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life.”

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.

Both these speeches had executed the art of persuasion extremely well. Even though both speeches had used many rhetoric devices they have many things in and uncommon. Further more, one of the many similarities is that both the speeches have a vast amount of metaphors. Dr. King uses metaphors to emphasize his point about the equality of blacks and whites. Similarly, Nelson Mandela uses metaphors to support his ideas.