Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech Analysis Essay Example

In the I Have a Dream speech, given on April 3, 1968, Martin Luther tends to prejudice and the need of equality. To comprehend Martin Luther as a speaker, it’s important to know he was born on January 15, 1929, and died on April 4, 1968. Some other things you should know about Martin are that he was an American minister activist spokesman and leader of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther’s audience was anyone that was listening via radio and television, and everyone present at the time was giving the speech. However, Martins' specific audience was white and ignorant. Throughout the speech, Martin’s main purpose was to give equal rights to black people, address issues within segregation and racism, and raise awareness regarding problems in American society. Martin Luther’s tone throughout the speech was serious, inspired, hopeful. Moreover, Martin uses ethos by using first-person pronouns like “ I have a dream,“ “ Black man,“ and “ I “. He also uses ethos when he says “ I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation¨ (Martin Luther).  This response shows his initial call for people to come together and unite to stand together against discrimination, which adds an ethical appeal to his speech. Furthermore, Martin also uses Pathos through his emotional language and word choice like “we will not be satisfied "until,” “despair”, “crippled”, and ” justice,” which shows emotions like inspired, powerful, and motivated. He also used allusion as he used the phrase ``Five score years ago''(Martin Luther) which was a reference to the Gettysburg Address “Four score and seven years ago.” Which shows a connection to the civil rights movement and the person America's problem upon slavery. He also used repetition to make the speech more emotional, like “freedom.” I have a dream.” Now is the time,” free at last,” and with this faith.” Moreover, Martin also used logos throughout the speech by saying “America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds”(Martin Luther). This is an example of logos considering that he tells the audience what is happening in society and around others. In addition, Martin showed logos when he said “all men are created equal”(Martin Luther) he showed every American citizen is equal. All things considered, Martin utilizes these appeals to inform not only about problems in society among racism and injustice but also to emotionally bring together the society. The "I have a dream speech" made by Martin Luther King Jr, was effective at being convincing due to Martin utilized imagery and feelings.