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.
Hema’s mother has a powerful connection to her Bengali culture, and she also has the culture of being a mother. She talks to Kaushik in Bengali language, yet also she also has the sympathy and care of a mother for her child, which is common in all cultures. Kaushik has a mix of American and Bengali culture, that’s why she understands Hema’s mother when she talks to him in Bengali, even though he replies in English. As Kaushik went to the market, he brought back broth and magazines which is quite popular in American culture. The passage shows how Jhumpa’s life is a mix of cultures that integrates with one another. She has Indian culture but was raised in American culture, and that entwines with the culture of her ancestors.
