Why We Cant Wait Rhetorical Questions

Through the use of many rhetorical devices, Martin Luther King expertly writes this piece using those devices to improve and influence the response of his audience. This introduction to his book, Why We Can’t Wait, is used to bring injustice to light and as a call to action piece. His goal is to inform the whites of America about racial inequality and to rally the African Americans to continue working towards a desegregated world.

Why We Can’t Wait written by Martin Luther King is a book that conveys the actual mind-set of many black Americans toward their freedom and emancipation. The social conditions for Blacks during the 1960’s were not that of freedom and liberty, but that of oppression and segregation. Martin Luther King makes use of a variety of stylistic, narrative, and persuasive devices to display his image of the harsh reality of the supposed “freedom” for blacks during the slowly progressing civil rights movement of the 60’s.

During the 1960's, Black African Americans had to face multiple social conditions and attitudes. Many were living in poverty or low-income communities, with either no education or very limited education. This certain community during this time period was neglected, rejected, and disrespected by the American society. In Martin Luther King's book "Why We Can't Wait", he uses rhetorical strategies and devices like parallelism, repetition, imagery, and rhetorical questions in order to seek social change in the United States.

King’s speech; he puts himself in everyone else’s shoes by saying, “I am happy to join with you today.” By doing this, he captures their attention by telling them that “today will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” Now that the audience is fully engaged, he moves towards the sole purpose of his speech. He does this by saying that after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, “100 years later the Negro still is not free.” He goes on to continue to list some of the issues which still occur today and ends his introduction with saying “now is the time” to start action. The body of his speech is primarily made up of the summarization of injustice that the African American people face. He brings up the fact that some people are unable to vote and the police brutality’s which of course support his argument. He makes it personal by giving his insight of his hopes and dreams for the future by stating that his kids will “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The speech’s conclusion properly reviews Martin Luther King Jr.’s points and stimulates the emotions of the audience. He does this by using the repetition of the phrase “let freedom ring” to rejoin with the audience and really emphasizes his belief of the importance of freedom and injustice. Finally, the last line of his speech, “all of God 's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and

In Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King Jr, Martin describes the weather and also implies that the civil rights movement were like the severe weather in 1962-63. He compared the harsh weather with the discrimination that black people were trying to overcome. In addition, black people were facing judgment, unfairness, poverty and lack of education. However, today black people often can get what they want and they come together and fight for their freedom and justice.

"We preach freedom around the world… but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other, that this is a land of the free except for the Negro?” This quote was spoken by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. These few words embodies’ the entire culture, goals and failures of the country during the civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement had a considerable measure going ahead between 1950’s and 1960’s. While there were some effective parts of the movement, there were a few disappointments also. The blend of accomplishments and disappointments prompted the expansion of the movement and in the long run a more equivalent American culture. You can imagine a parallel between the movement and the reconstruction era. And the cold war rhetoric on American freedom. The

One of Dr. King's most influential devices is his pristine use of repetition in order to drill his points across and reel the audience in. He goes on by describing the poor conditions faced by African Americans due to segregation that is ultimately at the fault of the government. Also showing how their African brothers are being taken away to fight for a country that does not see them as equals. His use of repetition is seen in statements such as: “...their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die…” and, “For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence….” Dr. King intends to stress the idea of this injustice in order to rally the people against the lack of civil rights by humanizing the countless African Americans who had died fighting for a nation that will not fight for them.

They struggled for equality and took part in some of the greatest civil rights movements ever known. Although the civil rights revolution came as a surprise, the causes fought for were necessary. According to Foner, “the United States in the 1950s was still a segregated, unequal society with half of the nation’s black families living in poverty.” (902) Many whites paid little attention to segregation because they felt it had no impact on their everyday lives. Segregation impacted blacks, especially in the South, on a daily basis. They had separate restrooms, drinking fountains, schools, entrances to public places, and were unable to enter many public institutions altogether. (902) The arrest of Rosa Parks sparked a year-long bus boycott and marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the South. (904) With Martin Luther King Jr. leading the movement, the freedom of justice and equality finally seemed within reach. According to the text, “King was a master of appealing to the deep sense of injustice among blacks and to the conscience of white America. He presented the case for black rights in a vocabulary that emerged the black experience with that of the nation.” (906)

Dr. King lived in a United States of America that had changed very little in its the treatment of African American citizens since the period of reconstruction after the Civil War. The Civil Rights Movement in 1963 was organized with help from King and other influential leaders. The movement struck at some of the most notable areas afflicted by racial inequality. Why We Can’t Wait centers on the pursuit of civil discourse that unfolds in Birmingham, Alabama, one of the most racially segregated cities in America at the time. Each of the components of the Civil Rights Movement alone would not have so successfully innovative. It was only the sum of its parts, together, that made it so ground breaking at obtaining equal rights for all races. The

History records the events chronicled in Why We Can’t Wait as the Civil Rights Movement. However, if we take to heart the words of the author, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we should view these events as the Civil Rights Revolution. Dr. King states, “A social movement that only changes people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution” (142). Through the method of nonviolent direct action the black citizens of the United States, specifically in Birmingham, Alabama, achieved more in the summer of 1963 than any other time in American history. To appreciate this revolution we must realize it battled against three foes; the white power structure, moderates, and the church.

A man once stood in front of a crowd of thousands of people both black and white. He delivered a speech that fought for the possibility of an America where both black and white citizens were truly equal; this man was“Martin Luther King Jr”(Martin Luther King Jr.). One might fight back and argue that the laws during this time did make the African Americans equal but this was not true, as one of the laws stated the two as being Equal but separate. This law was one of the Jim crow laws, in which African americans were in theory separate and equal, but in reality were given second hand treatment after the prioritized white citizens (Richard). The Jim Crow laws were unconstitutional and took away many African Americans chances at being considered

Martin Luther King Jr. begins his speech remembering the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order given by the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It was to guarantee freedom to black Americans. However, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. argues that since the proclamation, freedom never came. King says, “one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (Baym & Levine 585). Dr. King was breaking these manacles and chains through his peaceful protests. He inspired millions of people to stand for equality for all

This writer was very confused and hurt by the situation. She did not understand the problem. Because she did not do it because of anyone’s race, as far as she was concerned it was a safety issue and an uncomfortable situation to endure everyday. The writer also had never been around African Americans and did not understand

Activist and leader in the Africa American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr, speaks at the Lincoln Memorial to more than 200,000 people where he gives his famous “I have a Dream” speech, where he calls for the need of equal rights between blacks and whites. King’s purpose is to convince the American people that segregation is wrong and should be changed for future generations, encourage all African Americans into fighting until the end, and that segregation is wrong. He effectively achieves this through the use of many rhetoric’s to provide evidence that segregation and racism is not what America was built on.

More strikingly, his use of pathos is incredible as it strikes the emotional values of both black and white people by appealing to their emotions, fears, and desires. By repeating the phrase, “I Have a Dream,” he stresses the sense of hope and sympathy for negroes during that time period. He states, that the “Negro...finds himself in exile in his own land.” This phrase yields compassion as it shows that he empathizes with the unfair treatment and alienation of African Americans. He also uses highly connotative words to evoke an emotional response in the audience such as, “chains of discrimination” and “oppression” to reinforce the need for change.