George Chan

                                                                                                                        Nov. 16, 2000

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Analysis

            In the 1960s massive civil rights movements were raw with emotions.  But within this crowd there was one voice of logic and reason.  The voice was a man named Martin Luther King Jr., an ordained minister from the south with a doctorate in theology.  In 1961 he delivered a most compelling speech titled “Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience” In this speech he uses a method known as complimenting or praising to draw the audience into accepting his views even more.  Also he uses historical figures to make both pathos and ethos appeal.  Last but not least he defines what true peace is.

            His audience for this address is the Fellowship of the Concerned in Atlanta.  His audience isn’t too resistant to him but he still compliments and praises them in order to get them to listen even more and accept what he says. The address basically says that non-violent civil disobedience is the way to protest against unjust laws.  Also it illustrates why one should not use violence to prove their point.

Within the first paragraph he uses a method known as complimenting and praising.  Although his audience isn’t too resistant to what he is saying, he still compliments them on their concern and work across the south.  He does this a few times in this paragraph.  When he states “I need to pause to say how very delighted I am to be here today, and to have the opportunity of being a little part of this very significant gathering.”  In this comment he is praising the committee for allowing him, a small person in comparison, for their time.  He also praises them for their work when he said:

I would also like to express just a personal word of thanks and appreciation for your vital witness in this period of transition which we are facing in our Southland, and in the nation, and I am sure that as a result of this genuine concern, and you significant work in the communities all across the South. We have a better South today and I am sure we will have a better south tomorrow with your continued endeavor.

This quote thanks and praises the committee even more for their help in bettering the South.  With this paragraph he gets more acceptance from his audience, and will allow him to relay his thoughts to them without them turning their backs on him.  This is done by showing that the group is much more important than the individual but without belittling himself.  He also calls them brothers and that they are all working for a common goal.  Also with all the compliments and praises, he is making himself look more compassionate and more human.  Since the committee would like him, they would listen to his ideas even more.

            Our history has a lot of important people in it.  People of both good and bad where pathos and ethos can be established by using them properly in ones essay.  Martin Luther King Jr. uses historical figures to further illustrate his point through the use of pathos and ethos appeal. 

            Martin Luther King Jr. uses the strong pathos emotion of hatred and suffering in paragraph 21 in order to bring his point across.  He does this by using an analogy to link segregation to what Hitler has done in Nazi Germany.  He said, “We must never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’. It was illegal to aid and comfort a Jew, in the days of Hitler.” In this you can infer that what happened in Nazi Germany was just like Segregation in America.  Since many people cringe at what happened in Germany, the pathos appeal with the analogy that Nazism is the same as segregation will hopefully drive people away from segregation and towards integration.  Since his audience is made up of both blacks and whites, and both sides have the same anger and resentment to what happened in Germany, Martin Luther King uses this feeling to illustrate his point clearly and effectively.

            Another pathos appeal is found in paragraph 14.  With this pathos, he shows how the non-violent resistor is trying to focus on the goodness of human nature instead of the bad, by saying, “So that Jesus of Nazareth or Mohandas Gandhi can appeal to human beings and appeal to that element of goodness within them, and a Hitler can appeal to the element of evil within them.” With this statement he is showing the non-violent movements are like a Jesus of Nazareth or Gandhi trying to appeal to the element of goodness.  By showing the contrasts between Hitler and Jesus of Nazareth and Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. illustrates to his audience that the non-violent movement is a good thing trying to focus on the goodness within people.

In many instances humans have a duality of nature in their lives.  They have an amazing potential to be good and evil.  He uses philosophers to enhance his ethos and support his claim.  He cant just say, ”man has a duality in human nature” because he’s a minister.  That’s why he needs philosophical thinkers to back him up, otherwise his credibility will be deminished.

            For example, he quotes in paragraph 13, Ovid, a Latin poet, when he said, “I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do” and St. Augustine when he said “lord, make me pure, but not yet.”  These quotes can illustrate King’s point that man has a duality in human nature, but the best example of his ethos for his claim, that all humans have a duality in human nature, was when he quoted the famous philosopher Plato.  Plato centuries ago made an analogy and it went like this: “Human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions” and Martin Luther King related the horses to the personality of man when he commented ”so that within our own individual lives we see this conflict and certainly when we come to the collective life of man, we see a strange badness.  But in spite of this there is something in human nature that can respond to goodness.”  Martin Luther King points this out to show the audience that no matter how grim the movement gets there is always a possibility for humans to change.

            In paragraph 22 he talks about true peace and defines it to a white man that claimed “In Montgomery for all these years we have been such a peaceful community, we have had so much harmony in race relations…” and King replied and explained:

We never had true peace, we’ve never had positive peace, and what we’re seeking now is to develop this peace.  For we must come to see that peace is not merely the absence of some negative force, it is the presence of a positive force.  True peace is not merely the absence of tension, but it is the presence of justice and brother hood.

He goes into explaining that the peace that we have is not really peace it’s more like a monarchy, where one person (the white man) rules and everyone else (Negro Nation) has to submit to it.  But true peace is a democracy, the peace has to come from both sides, not just where whites have peace and blacks just submit to it. The white mans’ peace is a peace made by white man and held on the Negro nation with no fighting this is the monarchy.  But true peace is a peace between both sides that have equality and no fighting this is democracy.  That is what I believe Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to say.

            King’s method of complimenting and praising the committee allowed him to relay his thoughts easier.  Beside the compliments and praises his use of historical figures of the past to make both pathos and an ethos appeal helped solidify his ideas. His use of pathos helped show that segregation was just as bad as Hitler and his ethos showed that non-violent protest was the only way to go and all the references to the historical figures made him more credible.