A Greek Rhetorician and an American Pastor

I wrote this essay last year for my rhetoric class. It's intriguing to see the influence that Greek rhetoricians still have on modern thought and speech, though they have been dead for centuries. Thanks to classical tradition, this speech made history when it was given by black civil rights idealist, Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. In this essay I attempted to pinpoint just a few of Aristotle's ancient yet effective rhetorical techniques employed by King in this speech. 

            “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition”…

            This famous speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28^th, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial five years before his assassination, utilizes many human emotions and numerous methods of persuasion. One of the most dominant emotions evoked by King’s words is pity – pity for the plight of the black man and for social inequality in our country. Another is indignation – still others are anger, sadness, shame… emotions all analyzed by Aristotle in his The Art of Rhetoric. The Greek philosopher, nearly two thousand years before Dr. King’s time, outlined specific methods for provoking these emotions, methods put here into practice by King. His use of pathos is the decisive element in the effectiveness of this speech – it is what stirred so many American spirits and became the defining moment in the black race’s struggle for equality.

            The two main emotions to which King appeals in this speech are pity and indignation. Moreover it is not so much an appeal directed towards the oppressed as to the oppressors of America, designed to compel them to feel ashamed, drive them to action, and open their eyes to the harsh reality around them. No one, whether white or black, young or old, has heard this speech and remained unmoved by the preacher’s powerful words, crafted with these emotions in mind. They are effective because of the skill of a very persuasive orator, one who would have made Aristotle proud.

            The first and perhaps the most dominant emotion provoked is pity… “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality…We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only".”… Americans who are blind to the situation of inequality among blacks and whites are made acutely aware of its injustice as King portrays our racist society of 1963. Those who are aware and have done nothing are provoked to guilt by these scenarios. Those who are the victims of the injustice are moved from apathy to action. For all, pity is an emotion very powerful and important in regards to King’s aim, which is to peacefully end the social injustices suffered by the Negroes.      

            Aristotle states in his guide to persuasion that the key to stirring up any emotion is to know the states of men’s minds when they are full of this emotion, to know what causes them to feel the emotion, and to know what kinds of men feel the emotion. He must also be aware of how to take advantage of this knowledge. Dr. King utilizes this knowledge of the state of men’s minds when they feel pity, what causes them to feel pity and what kinds of men feel pity. Aristotle’s definition of pity is “a feeling of pain caused by the sight of some evil thing, destructive or painful which befalls one who does not deserve it.” King demonstrates to us that we should pity the oppressed Negro – “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied...” 

         At the opposite end of the spectrum are the people who cannot feel pity – those who think it impossible for similar evils to befall them and who think they possess all the good things of life. These are the people such as the opponents of and passive bystanders to, the Negros’ fight for freedom… the “vicious racists,… [Alabama’s] governor having his lips dripping with the words ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification’..” of the “dark and desolate valley of segregation.” 

         King also employs the technique of repetition to pound home the message of  social racism’s injustice with phrases such as “now is the time,” we must/cannot”, “let freedom ring,” and, his most famous phrase, “I have a dream.” Those who are not suffering under these conditions are moved to pity for those who are, and the oppressed are likewise moved to pity each other and themselves. Perhaps some blacks standing in Washington that day had previously shut their eyes to their position, felt apathetic, or accepted the situation as their only known mode of life. But on August 28^th of 1963 they could not help being moved to realization and action. Blacks and whites everywhere, across time and land, were captivated by the power of King’s words. “Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”

            The second primary emotion evoked by this speech is indignation; “…we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient find s in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.” Indignation became a major drive for blacks and whites alike in the civil rights struggle of the 60's - it expressed itself in indigation towards racist whites, towards Southerners in general, towards the laws and government of the nation which had caused so much stifling of equality,  and towards America as a whole. 

         Thus Luther addresses two domininant emotions which played powerful roles in this historic struggle. These emotions, indignation and pity, are ones which Aristotle defined thousands of years ago, ones common to mankind throughout the ages, ones as powerful in modern America as in ancient Greece. Human pathos existed then as it exists now, and Aristotle's pathetic appeal is still capable of stirring men to action - to speak out, to make new laws, to address corruption and oppression, and to try their best to change the world.