Rhetorical Analysis Of 'If I Ve Been To The Mountaintop'

“That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.” In 1968 at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee,, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his final most passionate and moving speech of all times. The date was April 3, 1986. I’ve Been to the Mountaintop was given by Martin Luther King Jr. the day before his assassination. In the 1960s, racial …show more content…
Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech.” At the time of the Civil Rights Movement most African Americans still had no rights and were made to remain silent. King was sure of himself though and knew what had to be done. The crowd he spoke to was mostly African Americans who wanted to stand up for themselves and achieve what they believed they deserved. With these words, he made known that he was adamant about his cause and knew the struggles they faced every day. It made them understand he had the right ethics or ethos. King said, “Force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out.” He appealed to their logic or logos and persuaded them that he was for their cause one hundred percent, nothing was going to stop him. King explained how the African American race was forced to suffer and were stranded on the streets with nowhere to go because not everyone accepted them. He used phrases like “Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up,” this logic was hard to miss with the crowds that were beginning these nonviolent protests and the amount of people coming to his speeches. King used pathos to grab the attention of the audience in the beginning by saying “I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning.” He was excited that everyone …show more content…
used many rhetorical tropes and types of figurative language in his speeches to bring out individual emotions. He wanted them to think, but still used this language in a manner that was appropriate for his audience. These types of words and languages added to the quality of the speech and reassured his audience that their leader was full of strength, brains, and hope. The first type of figurative language King used is anaphoras. Starting in paragraph two with the phrase "something is happening, something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world," and the phrase "I would," in the next six paragraphs. King used “I can remember” to start many sentences and “We are saying,” as another anaphora. Along with many other examples of these, he used anaphora to make his point known, to appeal to their emotion. People learn better hearing the same thing a few times and for King to be able to imprint his message in someone's head, using anaphoras can easily do that job. King used repetition with the words, “But I wouldn’t stop there” and “That is the question.” Using repetition was another great way for King to spread his message. He wanted to make sure everyone remembered what he had to say and that they understood the sickness that the Earth was experiencing. Along with anaphoras and repetition, King used personification in the instances such as, "The nation is sick." The nation couldn’t physically be sick, but the way the people