Life was poor in every direction for Africa an Americans. They had little chance for success in life and acceptance among whites was no t even fathomable. In the excerpt King uses emotive imagery, rhetorical questions, and historical allusion to persuade the audience to accept his point of view and to take action instead o f waiting aimlessly for someone else to take initiative, hints the title Why Can’t We Wait.
King effectively utilizes emotive imagery to appeal to the audiences emotion, while at the same time, creating a vivid picture of the grim circumstances that haunted African A Americans in the sass’s. He starts out with the brief but insightful summary of the life of a you Eng ‘negro’ boy. King states “The stench of garbage is in the halls. The drunk, jobless, the junkie sees are shadow figures of his everyday world. ” He uses this to appeal to the audiences emotion n by astutely pointing out how his life was of poor quality. This makes the reader more undo restarting and agreeable for when he gets into his main point.
Martin, in a refrained manner, uses rhetorical questions to bring his main poi NT to light. He says “why does misery constantly haunt the Negro? … Had the forebears done some e tragic injury to the nation”. This shows how unfortunate the ‘negro’ population was, and for what ? King despite the fact that he knows the answer, asks what was so wrong about African America NAS that they deserved this type of treatment. This also uses logos, because the audiences will think that King’s argument did nothing wrong. This, in turn, further persuades the audio once to accept his point of view and be more amenable to persuasion.
King Cleverly uses historical allusion to prove his point further and to persuade e. The subject matter which he presents to achieve his rhetorical purpose of persuasion by depicting the ‘negro’ situation is historical in nature. He references periods in history where African Americans have helped the United States in a way that few have. He states “for two hundred y ears, without wages … To commanding influence in domestic commerce and world trade. ” This illus trees the helpful lives of ‘Negroes’ that have been dedicated to the betterment of the US, and y et are treated poorly ND unfairly among whites.
This shows that people cannot sit idly by and wait for action that needs to be taken immediately. He persuades them into this with his sympathy ethic historical allusions. King also alludes to Other significant ‘negro’ figures and their coma placements, such as Crisps Attacks. He uses historical allusion as a tool to accomplish his ret original purpose.
