Rhetorical Devices Used In Martin Luther King's Speech

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“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” Martin Luther King Jr. said it himself, just by writing a letter and declaring his speech, he was able to inspire change in people through powerful words for the purpose of ending segregation. His words had rhetorical devices and appeals which enhanced his argument to fight for peace and end criticisms with no violence but just writing and saying words. Those words have a purpose behind events that went down in history and in people’s hearts. Marin Luther King’s uses allusion in “I have a Dream”, it showcases how he uses the rhetorical device to connect to a well-known situation, compared to how he uses …show more content…
uses allusion in his pieces of work to connect to a well know situation and connect it with his purpose in his writing. For example, allusion is being used in his writing in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written by himself towards eight white clergymen who criticized him about his, supposedly, “foolish” actions to end segregation. He states in paragraph 22 “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighter did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying the country’s antireligious laws.” In other words, Mr. King connects to the frightening event that exists in the pages of the history of how the Jewish people being persecuted by the Nazis, a group Hitler made to create hate and violence towards the Jews. He also connects to a Communist country where religion is not taken into consideration in their government. Clearly, Martin Luther King uses the rhetorical device of allusion to convey a message of peace through an unforgettable event in history and his purpose, of how he is a person of good, in his letter. This is because he explains he would have cared for those …show more content…
Pathos is applied to the emotion which Mr. King demonstrated in his “I Have a Dream” speech. During his announcement of Mr. King’s dream of his hope in the country to end segregation, he declares, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their kind but by the content of their character.” His words appeal to the emotion by bringing up how that his children are not seeing peace and love but he had hope, which makes the reader hopeful, that his “four little children” will see peace one day. Evidently, pathos is taken into Martin Luther King’s speech to motivate the reader and the public to raise their hope and the spirit of never giving up to make Mr. King’s dream come true so that the public's and his own innocent children, will see equality in

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