I've Been to The Mountaintop' Speech Analysis
In I've Been to the Mountaintop essay the analysis of this speech is given. Out of the considerable number of speeches composed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 'I've Been to the Mountaintop', shows the best example of Kings means of getting a message across. King was in Memphis to enable the community workers to battle for the privilege to get equivalent pay to their white counterparts. Not exclusively did the discourse demonstrate the significance of equal rights for laborers in Memphis, it was likewise an open door for MLK to express his empathy towards every single African American who kept on enduring during the Civil Rights Movement. This discourse gave enduring impacts on his followers in view of his utilization of Pathos in his discourse which additionally helped him express what is on his mind. Being from a Religious family, MLK was a profoundly regarded man, and along these lines, had numerous African Americans who bolstered each choice that he made utilizing his capacity of ethos. All through this discourse, MLK gives explicit instances of his own encounters to help his contention. King furnishes the group of spectators with these life circumstances with the expectation that the crowd will shape an association with him. He comprehends the struggles these individuals have confronted, and he wants to work together to beat the hardships. Kings use of Pathos, ethos, and reference to contemporary events to show his support and drive to overcome the discrimination in Memphis and the United States at a whole.
The explanatory idea of Pathos utilized in The Mountaintop speech is overpowering. King gives instances of his own background; he uses references to God, and he makes references to unique individuals in his discourse. These ideas give the group of spectators a feeling of power. He makes them feel just as everybody has a significant job in this development. The emotional encounters that he integrates with his speech are intended to raise a sentiment of annoyance and compassion. King offers this to the group of spectators by saying: “You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting their autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, 'Are you Martin Luther King?' And I was looking down writing, and I said, 'Yes.' And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it, I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drowned in your own blood -- that's the end of you.” In this paragraph, King gets the group of spectators' attentions by sharing his brush with death with them. King utilizes this guide to draw in with the group of spectators, however, to inspire them to make any kind of effect to better society. This individual experience King offers catches the group of spectators' hearts by the power of pathos.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a good man in the Christian church. He utilizes the talk and idea of ethos to help bolster his contention. He was the minister of his Lutheran Church in Alabama, and in this way, a considerable lot of his supporters were from his congregation. The group of spectators admired him for direction and backing through troublesome occasions. He didn't have a troublesome time prevailing upon the crowd since many his contentions were established with God at the source. He acknowledged God as his Savior and did everything in His name. Commonly he referenced God's name in his discourse saying, “I’m just happy God has allowed me to leave in this period to see what’s unfolding,” and “We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we are God’s children, we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.” He appeals to follower's ethos and belief in Christ with these announcements. He is utilizing a reference to God to enable the group of spectators to comprehend that all the diligent work will satisfy on the grounds that God has laid a road map for all in
King makes many references to explicit individuals. His uses these individuals in his endeavor to draw in the crowd and help them comprehend the significance of this development. Bull Connor was the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama during the social equality development. He turned into a universal image of bigotry as a result of his utilization of fire hoses and assault hounds on African Americans during serene developments. King utilizes this reference to engage the crowd because such huge numbers of them were awfully abused by this man. He shouts: 'Bull Connor next would say, 'Turn the fire hoses on.' And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the trans physics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out.” This section clarifies that the fire within the African Americans seeking after balance by harmony is far more worthy than any genuine fire. He is by implication demonstrating that setting aside the distinctions individuals have with each other and meeting up all in all will at last end in triumph for blacks. These few sentences demonstrate the power of using real life events to not only draw your audience in but impower them, which is exactly what king was doing
In conclusion to “I ve been to the mountaintop” essay the speech is a cry from King to say that there is hope for the African American community, that what they have been fighting will not be in vain. King speaks to people who have been oppressed for years and understanding how King speaks in this speech shows how he was truly attempting to give hope and can teach someone how just a little bit of belief in yourself or cause can go. King used pathos and ethos to bring the crowd together and give them the emotion he is feeling on the inside. And finished with telling them horrible events in history that have plagued the black community to give them to fighting spirit to get to the promise land king has seen. Unfortunately, King would never get to see the impact this beautiful speech would have on everyone, he was assassinated only a day later in Memphis.
Work Cited
- King, Martin Luther, Jr. I've Been to the Mountaintop. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. Print.