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

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Some people are powerful in that they have strength, and can use it to achieve their goals. Others are powerful in that they use their intelligence. However, the most powerful is the person, that with the mere use of their voice and language can achieve their goals. Martin Luther King Jr., an active figure in the civil rights movement, was one of these rare people. When he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C., he moved an entire nation. In his speech he effectively used schemes and tropes such as extended metaphor, hypophora, and anaphora to portray to his audience the struggle of African Americans in society. He also established ethos, logos, and pathos to ensure that his audience would remember his words and feel what the African Americans went through. In his speech, King uses an extended metaphor, which continues throughout a paragraph, to compare the freedom and rights of African Americans to a bad check. “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds”. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.” He uses this…show more content…
He was a popular civil rights supporter and thus was trusted, which is why many people gathered to listen to him. He establishes logos by using actual examples. Among these are examples are the conditions in Alabama, Abraham Lincoln, and the Declaration of Independence.He evokes ethos especially when he says, “We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only."” He shows that even innocent little kids have to face the struggles and hardships of injustice and inequality. People would sympathize with children and be swayed to fight for the
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