Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream

Martin luther king relies heavily on pathos and ethos to convey his message on equality as well as rhythm and frequent repetition . In Martin Luther’s King speech “I have a Dream” he starts off very slow and mentions historical documents and events that occurred previously in American history. Such as the Emancipation proclamation in order to gain credibility from his audience “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” by using the power of an important historical figure Abraham Lincoln. King alludes to several different works like the Bible and Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Furthermore, he uses the Declaration of Independence to reinforce the unalienable rights (something pointed out by Thomas Jefferson) “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to prove that the government has …show more content…
He gives a lot of emotion throughout the speech, a very good technique to used when giving a speech to a massive audience . To make the audience sympathize with the Negroes. Which resulted in having a large impact as it aided in the illustration of the racial problems of the time. King uses rhetorical appeals, one of which is pathos, or the mode of utilizing human emotions, by making his audience no longer hate Negroes and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world. King also uses ethos and logos, which help in Martin Luther King’s speech to make the audience think that whites have lied and broken all of their promises made to the Negroes. An example of a logo is when King refers to the Emancipation of Proclamation which was signed a 100 years ago. This declared slaves free and no longer to be treated as property, he uses this as an evidence to show that Lincoln supported the freeing of blacks. This creates an ethos appeal while using

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Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream