Analysis of Dr. King's Speech: Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Over fifty years ago Dr. King make his speech “The Other America” in front of people to express his feeling and gain support to his campaign. Many people attend to his speech, but the question is did he manage to convince all of them? What makes a speech a successful one? What are the technique Dr. King use to persuade the people? Besides from Dr. King position, how did he influence so much people by this speech? On my essay I will analyze all the factors that makes Dr. King speech convince a lot of people.
Dr. King started with speech using the charge word 'The other America'. By using that word, Dr. King made us realize that there is to side of America. He mentions on his speech that one America is beautiful for situation.
He describes this one America as “the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for them minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits”. And, there was another side of this America which is completely the opposite of the first one. Dr. King describe this other side as A daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair. Where thousands and thousands of people, men walk the streets in search for jobs that do not exist”.
We all know that even this happen more than fifty years ago, the two side of America still exist. Where other race and gender still get treated unequally. People continue to fight for their rights. On his speech titled “The other America” Dr. King uses all three rhetorical appeal to connect with his audience.
As Dr. King continue with his speech, he provided some rhetorical appeal to support his charge word. The first rhetorical appeal I will mention on this essay is Logos which is the rhetoric attempts to persuade the audience using arguments that they will perceive as logical. He mentions some statistics to support his argument that most of the black people by that time is experiencing social problem due to mass unemployment of the black community.
Dr King states on his speech that the fact is, that the negro faces a literal depression all over the U.S. The unemployment rate based on statistics from the labor department is about 8.8 percent in the black community. But these statistics only take under consideration individuals who were once in the labor market, or individuals who go to employment offices to seek employment. But they do not take under consideration the thousands of people who have given up, who have lost motivation, the thousands of people who have had so many doors closed in their faces that they feel defeated and they no longer go out and look for jobs, the thousands who've come to feel that life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs.
By providing this information he proves that there is really two side of America. Logo is important part of the speech because it always provides an accurate information to support an argument. Without an accurate support a speaker will have trouble convincing their audience.
The second Rhetorical appeal Dr. King uses to his speech is Pathos. Pathos is attempts to persuade the audience by making them feel certain emotions. While Dr. king mention about the Charge word 'The other America' and supporting his argument with accurate statistics.
Audience was slowly being attached on Dr. king speech. Dr. King started dealing with audience emotion by stating 'Now let me relieve you a bit. I've been in the struggle a long time now, and I've conditioned myself to some things that are much more painful than discourteous people not allowing you to speak, so if they feel that they can discourage me, they'll be up here all night'. After this statement audience gave Dr. King an applause. Dr. King was trying to let the audience know that even though he was struggling, He still ready to fight for everyone’s right. And that is how he connected with the audience emotion. Emotions is important with the speech because that is how your audience will find out how sincere the speaker is about his argument.
The last Rhetorical appeal is Ethos: An appeal based on the credibility, experience or position of the speaker. This kind of appeals give the audience a sense of the author as competent, fair, an authority figure. Such an appeal may highlight the author’s trustworthiness, credibility, reliability. Dr. King is known as the leader in the civil rights movement. He travels everywhere to convince people and fight for everyone freedom to promote racial equality to everyone. Dr. King is willing to sacrifice his own freedom so that everyone can have their own freedom. Dr. King is the man willing to take all the consequences for us to be treated equal. Knowing all of this might let us think that Ethos doesn’t matter on his speech or he doesn’t need to convince people because he was already famous. He was already known for fighting for civil rights. But during his time, He must make some extra effort so that most of the people is aware of the situation and have a courage to fight for there right.
All three rhetorical appeals are important for speech to become effective. Dr. King use all of them to connect, persuade and encourage all his audience. He uses Logos to provide accurate statistic so that the audience can easily connect with his main argument. Then he uses pathos as an emotion of the speech so that he can convince and encourage. Everyone that there is no reason for us to fear to get what we should have which is equality for everyone. Lastly Ethos which is the character of the speaker. Dr. King is known person that has a lot of courage to fight equality of everyone. Most of the people know him on his time. Imagine our world right now if Dr. King wasn’t a good speaker. If he doesn’t convince his audience to fight for our right. Maybe it is going to be different. What I believe that Dr. King did not fight only for the rights of black people. He fought for everyone's rights. For all of us to be treated as equal. And that is why This speech is for all of us.
