Everyone knows about, or has heard of, Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but what was it that made it so powerful and motivating? The secret is King’s use of the five rhetorical appeals, or the five methods used to convince someone of something. The appeals are Kairos, Telos, Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. King used all five to supplement his argument, but it is his exemplary use pathos, or emotional appeal, that sealed the deal and put “I Have a Dream” in the history books.
King began his speech with a solemn reminder of the emancipation proclamation, and the great good it did for the people of America. It freed American people from slavery, what it did not do, however, is free the people from oppression. The constitution and …show more content…
He was, as the person who announced him said, the leader and public face of the civil rights movement. This in itself is enough to confirm his credibility, his Ethos, and King seems to know that. He does not speak about himself during his speech, does not recount the multiple times he’d been sent to jail, nor does he describe all the efforts he’d put into the movement up until then. He doesn’t do any of that, what he does do, however, is talk about his children. In perhaps the most famous line of his speech, he reveals a hope that his children will someday live in a better world than the one they currently occupy, “I have a dream…” he proclaims, “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…” Perhaps this does not immediately seem as if it aids his ethos, but with this statement, King proves beyond a doubt that he has dedicated his heart and soul into the civil rights movement. King has an invested interest in making sure that they succeed, so that his children will never have to face the same hardships he has. This line is also heavily padded with Pathos, and delicately influences the audience to consider their own families, and what living in a better world would mean for …show more content…
Nothing screams logic, however, so much as two lines in which King acknowledges his white supporters in the audience, “…They have come to realize their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone” (King). In other words, King is saying that no one is free unless everyone is, or the freedom of a few is an illusion. If freedom is restricted, it can easily be taken away, here King suggests that they are not only fighting for black American’s rights, but every American’s
King began his speech with a solemn reminder of the emancipation proclamation, and the great good it did for the people of America. It freed American people from slavery, what it did not do, however, is free the people from oppression. The constitution and …show more content…
He was, as the person who announced him said, the leader and public face of the civil rights movement. This in itself is enough to confirm his credibility, his Ethos, and King seems to know that. He does not speak about himself during his speech, does not recount the multiple times he’d been sent to jail, nor does he describe all the efforts he’d put into the movement up until then. He doesn’t do any of that, what he does do, however, is talk about his children. In perhaps the most famous line of his speech, he reveals a hope that his children will someday live in a better world than the one they currently occupy, “I have a dream…” he proclaims, “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…” Perhaps this does not immediately seem as if it aids his ethos, but with this statement, King proves beyond a doubt that he has dedicated his heart and soul into the civil rights movement. King has an invested interest in making sure that they succeed, so that his children will never have to face the same hardships he has. This line is also heavily padded with Pathos, and delicately influences the audience to consider their own families, and what living in a better world would mean for …show more content…
Nothing screams logic, however, so much as two lines in which King acknowledges his white supporters in the audience, “…They have come to realize their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone” (King). In other words, King is saying that no one is free unless everyone is, or the freedom of a few is an illusion. If freedom is restricted, it can easily be taken away, here King suggests that they are not only fighting for black American’s rights, but every American’s