Martin Luther King Jr.'s Why We Can't Wait describes the hardships and injustices African Americans endured in the 1960s. During this period of time, they suffered spiteful acts of discrimination. The introduction to King's book uses the rhetorical devices of pathos, logos, rhetorical questions, imagery, and parallelism. Creating a sense of empathy and promoting social change are King's motives for utilizing these rhetorical strategies.
The passage can be divided into three distinct sections, each with its own purpose. The unfortunate lifestyles of two African American children are describes in the first section. Important events are mentioned, relating to notable African Americans in the second section. King transitions from speaking of the past to the present in the last section. Altogether, these sections …show more content…
A "young Negro boy" is described to live in a "vermin-infested apartment house in Harlem. King mentions," His father is one of the jobless. His mother is a sleep-in domestic, working for a family on Long Island." Pathos is evident in that the family is poverty-stricken and the family is divided. It is also evident in the description of a "young Negro girl" who was forced to play the role of her siblings' mother. It is claimed, "If the ambulance hadn't come so late to take her to the all-Negro hospital the mother might still be alive." The use of pathos is necessary to illustrate the hardships African Americans suffered. It is also notable that the imagery of the young boy and the young girl enriched the pathos King created. Another rhetorical strategy was the use of rhetorical questions. The author asks," Why does misery haunt the Negro?" By also questioning if they had cursed the black race, an emphasis is placed on the injustices of discrimination. Seeming as African Americans did nothing wrong to be so wrongly punished, the emphasis causes people to realize the
The passage can be divided into three distinct sections, each with its own purpose. The unfortunate lifestyles of two African American children are describes in the first section. Important events are mentioned, relating to notable African Americans in the second section. King transitions from speaking of the past to the present in the last section. Altogether, these sections …show more content…
A "young Negro boy" is described to live in a "vermin-infested apartment house in Harlem. King mentions," His father is one of the jobless. His mother is a sleep-in domestic, working for a family on Long Island." Pathos is evident in that the family is poverty-stricken and the family is divided. It is also evident in the description of a "young Negro girl" who was forced to play the role of her siblings' mother. It is claimed, "If the ambulance hadn't come so late to take her to the all-Negro hospital the mother might still be alive." The use of pathos is necessary to illustrate the hardships African Americans suffered. It is also notable that the imagery of the young boy and the young girl enriched the pathos King created. Another rhetorical strategy was the use of rhetorical questions. The author asks," Why does misery haunt the Negro?" By also questioning if they had cursed the black race, an emphasis is placed on the injustices of discrimination. Seeming as African Americans did nothing wrong to be so wrongly punished, the emphasis causes people to realize the