Martin Luther King's main strategy in his speech was to persuade readers by stimulating sentiment and emotions regarding the struggle for civil rights.
This strategy is known as Pathos and is a rhetorical device heavily used in speeches, which portrays an emotionally impacting theme.
Although King also presented logical and ethical strategies in his speech, pathos was the main method of appeal he developed.
Through pathos, King showed that:
The situation of blacks was something difficult and needed to be changed quickly.
The fight for civil rights was being ignored by the rulers and this harmed a great part of the citizens.
Racism is something negative where everyone is affected.
The suffering of a people cannot be ignored.
King also uses pathos to show how sad it is that he is rewarded for something that has not been achieved and which is very disadvantageous to black people.
