The Rhetoric of Pathos in the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Es

The Rhetoric of Pathos in the books of Dr. Martin Luther magnate, Jr. I have a dream, says Dr. Samuel Proctor, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor old of Rutgers University. All the little children--you hear everywhere you go I have a dream. All the little children repeating that dialect. Its become like the Star Spangled Banner or the Pledge of Allegiance. Its entered our culture. And so it has I have a dream has become iodine of the most memorable phrases of the twentieth century. Of exclusively the many speeches delivered at the capital of Nebraska Memorial on that hot, steamy day of August 28, 1963, no other(a) remarks have had such an impact as those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His words reflected then, and slip away to do so now, the deep sense of pathos in the engagement of African-Americans throughout the United States, a socio-economic and political context rooted in injustices orchestrated by unfair, discriminatory practices that were designed to intimidate and do minate the nations African-Americans underside a veneer of social and political platitudes accepted as givens by others in the same society. Those easy assumptions Dr. King challenged in his reflections on the African-Americans start out to that time. What set apart his remarks from all the others that day, however, were elements of style--an oratorical style--that Dr. King had honed in speech after speech for years. He was, in fact, a much honest orator. A comparison of almost any set of his remarks reveals the key to the spectacular sense of pathos that still accent his works for readers today. The distinguishing features of Martin Luther King, Jr.s style which so personalize his works are his rich allusions, figures of speech, and parallelism. These th... ...uinas, an unjust law is a tender law that is not rooted in eternal and lifelike law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust (293). In the name of eternal and natural law, Dr. King joined in the long train of reformers, dating in the American and Western tradition to Thoreaus Civil Disobedience, to the Continental Congresss Declaration of Independence, and John Lockes apostrophe to democracy, his endeavor on Civil Government. Dr. Kings words still urge us all to sharpen our sensitivity to universal law that makes each of us drop by the wayside at last. Works Cited King, Martin Luther, Jr. I Have a Dream. A volition of Hope. San Francisco Harper and Row, 1986. 217-220. King, Martin Luther, Jr. Letter from Birmingham City Jail. A Testament of Hope.San Francisco Harper and Row, 1986. 289-302.