My next homework like this one in my own compare and contrast essay plus 800 to 1000 words. Introduction Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr., were public figures, impacting both policy and public perspective. Part of their success was rooted in the fact that they were powerful speakers, able to both inform and motivate their listeners. In some respects, they were similar since they were both looking toward peaceful resolution. In other respects, such as in methodology and in tone, they differed greatly. Regardless of their methods, both speakers effectively employed rhetorical modes and devices that fit their purpose and audience. “Atlanta Compromise” Booker T. Washington was invited to speak at the Cotton Exposition States in Atlanta, Georgia on Sept. 18, 1895. It was a time of racial segregation, just 30 years after the end of the Civil War. He spoke to a largely white audience about Americas future, employing several rhetorical devices including: Analogy Booker T. Washington turned to analogy to represent the necessity of cooperation in America just as Twain did to clarify his view of the river: A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, Water, water; we die of thirst! The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, Cast down your bucket where you are. A second time the signal, Water, water; send us water! ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, Cast down your bucket where you are. And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, Cast down your bucket where you are. The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. Washington wanted to emphasize that both races must work together to reap the benefits America has to offer. Repetition The above analogy doesnt act in isolation but grounds the rest of the speech. Washington grabbed onto a key phrase: Cast down your bucket and returned to it at several points in the speech. (Tim OBrien employed a similar tactic in The Things They Carried.) Washington, speaking to fellow African-Americans, said: To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: Cast down your bucket where you are -- cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. Later, he returned to this phrase, emphasizing its simultaneous relevance to his white audience: To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, Cast down your bucket where you are. Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. Both of these devices work toward a common theme: a joint effort is the only path to peace and prosperity. “I Have a Dream” Martin Luther King stood before 200,000 people in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963 to offer a similar message. Like Washington, he employed analogy and repetition to make this speech one of the most memorable in American history. Analogy Martin Luther King, Jr. also used analogy to represent the current state of America. He compared Americas treatment of African-Americans to writing a bad check. He said: In a sense, weve come to our nations capital to cash a check. When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir...It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds. All Americans understand the expectation that accompanies a check: when they take it to the bank, it will be honored. Thus, Kings analogy is effective, transferring the anger and frustration of false promises from a monetary to a racial context. Repetition Like OBrien and Washington, King repeated key phrases for impact. In paragraph 3, he said One hundred years later at the beginning of four sequential sentences, emphasizing Americas lack of progress since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. In paragraph 6, he similarly relied on repetition, saying: This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice and to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all Gods children. He hit his point home: action today, not tomorrow. Kings most memorable lines came at the end of the speech, with several short paragraphs that all began I have a dream revealing that, despite current circumstances, he was optimistic. These paragraphs are followed by two paragraphs that began with With this faith and several sentences that began Let freedom ring. Thus, even if the listener only retained the repeated phrases, he/she was able to grasp the speechs evolution and theme. Tone Due to the political climate, both of these writers had to carefully consider their message and how they delivered it. Both Washington and King wanted to promote change, but at the same time, they did not want to alienate their listeners or, even worse, to incite violence. Washington lived in a time when segregation was a way of life; for this speech, his audience was predominantly white. As a result, he believed that asking for too much too soon would achieve nothing. He acknowledged a desire for social equality but emphasized that it would be a natural outgrowth of economic equality, not an immediate demand. Thus, his focus, for the present time, was to come together solely in matters of economy. To accompany his theme of cooperation, he chose a tone of optimism—optimism that each community could uplift the other, that together they could walk a path to economic and social equality. He painted a picture of a bright future: I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race. The final result? A new heaven and a new earth. He was a success. The reception of his speech was overwhelmingly positive, as evidenced by this reply from Grover Cleveland, then President of the United States. Gray Gables, Buzzards Bay, Mass. October 6, 1895 Booker T. Washington, Esq. My Dear Sir: I thank you for sending me a copy of your address delivered at the Atlanta Exposition. I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I have read it with intense interest, and I think the Exposition would be fully justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity for its delivery. Your words cannot fail to delight and encourage all who wish well for your race; and if our colored fellow citizens do not from your utterances gather new hope and form new deter[m]inations to gain every valuable advantage offered them by their citizenship, it will be strange indeed. Yours very truly, Grover Cleveland. Reference: historycooperative.org/btw/Vol.3/html/578.html Seventy years later, Martin Luther King similarly spoke of racial equality. Progress had been made—schools had been desegregated (1954) and Rosa Parks had begun the first large-scale, non-violent organized protest against segregation (1955)—but it was not enough. The political climate was volatile. Thus, in his tone, King had to emphasize both strength and restraint, passion and order—no easy feat. In some ways, Martin Luther King, Jr.s, speech echoes Booker T. Washingtons. Washington touted self-respect: No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. King, too, believed that one should never abandon his/her ethics: We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. Further, like Washington, King urged cooperation: The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. Conclusion Where these men differ is in their methodology. Washington advocated small steps, working from the bottom up. King, however, felt that they had waited long enough. He said, We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. His emphasis on cooperation and dignity, as well as immediate progress, allowed him to reach his audience. In 1852, in his Independence Day Speech, Frederick Douglass said: It is not light that is needed but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Booker T. Washington was the gentle shower; Martin Luther King, Jr., the storm. Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Independence Day Speech at Rochester. The American Reader. New York: Harper Collins, 1991. King, Martin Luther Jr. I Have A Dream. Great American Speeches. 2000. PBS. 15 Feb. 2002. Reference: pagebypagebooks/Martin_Luther_King_Jr/I_Have_A_Dream/I_Have_a_Dream_p1.html Washington, Booker T. Atlanta Exposition Address. Great American Speeches. 2000. PBS. 15 Feb. 2002.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 19:37:13 +0000
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