Martin Luther King Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

     Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech was given on December 10, 1964. The speech is epideictic because it is ceremonial. Like many great speakers, in his introduction he alludes to Mark Antony's funeral oration for Julius Caesar. He begins saying, "Your majesty, your royal highness, Mr. President, excellences, ladies and gentlemen". He is demonstrating the rhetorical term imitation or imitation. Orators often imitate past rhetoricians in order to pay homage and display their admiration towards past ancient orators. Within the introduction Dr. King omits the use of conjunctions between each person or group of people that he recognizes. This is an example of Asyndeton It signifies the value of each of the individuals by recognizing them as solely important. Instead of just listing people he takes a brief pause between each name in order to show his gratitude for their attendance. He talks about how he accepts the award. However he then acknowledges that though he as an African American accepts an award regarding peace, there are still 22 million Black Americans of which aren't able to live peacefully. The speech begins to demonstrate the movendi or middle style. He now is trying to inspire blacks within the civil rights movement. He starts to change the focus of his speech to being strictly about him to being about equality within black America. He alludes to the Birmingham march of which black participants were faced with fire hoses, police brutality, and attack dogs. By presenting this information he is informing the audience of the harsh reality of racial injustice in order to make the audience attentive and get them in a receptive mood. Dr. King goes to say, " I question why this award goes to a movement dealing with the black social structure and to a movement that has not yet reached the diverted peace of which the Nobel Peace Prize entails". Dr. King is presenting the audience with a rhetorical question. It is not necessarily meant to be answered but to be pondered upon. He says that the award furthers his belief that nonviolence is the answer in regards to various issues especially discrimination. Dr. King is also exercising deliberative rhetoric because he is trying to persuade the people in as well as outside of the audience that humanity is most progressive when it values equality. He goes to say, "I refuse to believe that man is bound to the starless image of racism". He uses the metaphor to equate racism with darkness. He uses the word "we" numerous times at the beginning of sequential phrases in order to express his unified view of humanity. This demonstrates the Rhetorical term of Anaphora, of which stresses the importance of a word within successive clauses. He ends his speech by suggesting that the prize is more than an honor to him but it also serves as the peace that is to come within America.