Ethos, Logos And Pathos: A Comparison Speech

In the two speeches, “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Ferguson speech by President Obama, both use similar techniques in their speeches. Both of these people are serious advocates from there problem and express their opinions greatly. Throughout these speeches both leaders express examples of Ethos, Pathos and Logos while including tone, parallel structure and repetition, yet they sometimes the ways they express it can be different.
Both of these leaders use a form of ethos, the credibility a speaker or author builds with an audience. For example Barack Obama is the President of the United States, which most US citizens see as a credible source. Martin Luther King Jr. also expresses a form of Ethos. People trust Martin Luther King Jr. as a leader because he advocated for many people’s rights. This shows that these leaders do in fact share the fact of using Ethos throughout their speeches.

Another similarity between these two speeches is the sharing of Pathos, the emotional appeal to an audience. Obama states, “We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances.” King also has examples of Pathos in his speech, “But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient
King constantly brings up the idea of hope for African American citizens while also bringing up the injustice done to them. Obama constantly brings up the idea of peace among the citizens of Ferguson and strides for anti-violence. The style of King and Obama is very similar the both use repetition to express their ideas.
Throughout President Obama and Martin Luther King Jr’s speech examples of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are evident. Obama and King masterfully use these tactics to win over the audience. They also use tone and repetition to draw their speeches together. These speeches are great examples of