Charbel.

Basmadji
Analysis of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
I have Been to the Mountaintop

In the nineteen hundred the fight for racial equalities was the
topic of the century, till now it has not ended, day by day
month by month we are experiencing racism all the time all
over the world.
In this essay I will analyze Dr. Martin Luther King Jr speech
“I’ve been to the mountaintop” and explain the rhetorical
devices that he used and site, explain the modes of persuasion:
ethos, pathos, and logos.
Dr. Martin Luther king jr was an American minister and a
leader in civil right movement he was a spokesperson for all
the black communities in America he fought for their rights.
He won the noble peace prize in 1964, four years before his
assassination.
The famous “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech that he
delivered in the nineties was being heard all over the world.
The mountaintop is a symbol for equality or mount equality
which he was fighting for, that symbol represent the journey
the African black individuals had to get through to finally
reach a place or a state of time and matter were they would
have finally be able to live in peace and equality with others.
At the start of his speech he speaks about how we the world
have reached and agreed with each other that we are all
demanding that our rights to be respected and not oppressed,
then moves to a point were he uses pathos to remind the
audience that the civil right movement can be achieved with a
non-violence stance, he reminds them how other wars and
movements that their older generation were involved in and
how they were achieved with peace and how the old
generation wouldn’t want to see them fight with violence
rather would prefer seeing the world at peace. However
Dr.King continues his speech by praising religious leaders “I
would move on by Greece and take my mind to Mount
Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates,
Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the
Parthenon. And I would watch them around the
Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of
reality.”, and there work, while hoping that the work that’s
being put in, in his time does an impact on the world.
Several times, King appeals to the feelings of the audience,
seeking to make his opinions emotionally resonate with the
audience. He accomplishes this by referencing the "thirteen
hundred children of God who struggle here, often go
hungry, go through dark and dreary nights wondering
how this thing is going to come out." These photos are
intended to make the viewer believe like an injustice has been
committed and can also help them relate to the struggles of
the workers, on the other hand King appeals to the audience’s
reason by mistreatment logical arguments, facts, and applied
math evidence. For example, to persuade the African-
American audience of their economic power, the speaker
refers to statistics: “collectively we have a tendency to are
richer than all the nations within the world, with the
exception of nine.” ; “We have an annual financial gain of
over thirty billion bucks a year, that is more than all of the
exports of the u. s.”. As a speaker and leader of this
movement, he then creates his own legitimacy by saying: "
But I wouldn't stop there." “Also, to the great heyday of
the Roman Empire, I will move on. And there, through
different emperors and leaders, I would see changes
around there.” "But I wouldn't stop there " This serves as
Ethos, eventually reminding his audience of his honesty and
commitment to any kind of cause with which he becomes
interested (the example he provides is in principle and an
example of his real life actions).