Martin Luther King was a well known motivational speaker who spoke for his people. Throughout his speeches and writing he used many rhetorical devices to help explain and emphasize what he was saying. These devices were used most importantly in his “I Have a Dream” speech and his ¨Letter from Birmingham Jail¨. Three of the devices Martin uses in his speech and letter is, repetition, rhetorical questions, and analogy. These three devices helped him give readers a better understanding of his writing along with more emphasis.
To start, repetition is used in writing to reinform readers about a certain key idea or topic. Martin uses repetition to start his speech when describing ¨the negro”. He says ¨ but one hundred years later, the negro is …show more content…
One hundred years later the negro lives on an island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” Throughout this paragraph Martin explains how swallowed blacks are with hate, segregation, and unfair rights. They feel discrete from the rest of the world and only find comfort with citizens of the same color skin. Secondly, Martin also uses rhetorical questions to get his readers to think and not look for the answer, but the effect. An example Martin uses in his speech is “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ¨When will you be satisfied?¨ But he answers saying, “We can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of the unspeakable horror of …show more content…
This letter also has many examples of these three rhetorical devices. Beginning with repetition again, Martin uses “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or the extension of justice?” These is an important piece of repetition because it states of what we will be extremists about? What would be better for us to take more into thought due to the situation? Now is rhetorical questions. Martin uses many examples such as ¨What kind of people worship here? Who is there God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices when bruised and weary Negro men and woman decided to ride from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?”All questions wondered by many and especially Martin. Questions used to show that people are never there when they really need to be. They never seem to be there when it would be needed the most. What for? Questions nobody will never really know. So last, is again the analogy. ¨Just as the prophets of the 8th century B.C. left their villages and carried their ¨thus says the lord¨ message, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom.¨ This explains how he carried his message to tell
To start, repetition is used in writing to reinform readers about a certain key idea or topic. Martin uses repetition to start his speech when describing ¨the negro”. He says ¨ but one hundred years later, the negro is …show more content…
One hundred years later the negro lives on an island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” Throughout this paragraph Martin explains how swallowed blacks are with hate, segregation, and unfair rights. They feel discrete from the rest of the world and only find comfort with citizens of the same color skin. Secondly, Martin also uses rhetorical questions to get his readers to think and not look for the answer, but the effect. An example Martin uses in his speech is “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ¨When will you be satisfied?¨ But he answers saying, “We can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of the unspeakable horror of …show more content…
This letter also has many examples of these three rhetorical devices. Beginning with repetition again, Martin uses “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or the extension of justice?” These is an important piece of repetition because it states of what we will be extremists about? What would be better for us to take more into thought due to the situation? Now is rhetorical questions. Martin uses many examples such as ¨What kind of people worship here? Who is there God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices when bruised and weary Negro men and woman decided to ride from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?”All questions wondered by many and especially Martin. Questions used to show that people are never there when they really need to be. They never seem to be there when it would be needed the most. What for? Questions nobody will never really know. So last, is again the analogy. ¨Just as the prophets of the 8th century B.C. left their villages and carried their ¨thus says the lord¨ message, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom.¨ This explains how he carried his message to tell