M.L.K and Malcolm X Compare/Contrast

The two most influential civil rights activists in American history were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They supported equal rights for every race, but when comparing MLK’s â€Å"I Have a Dream’ and Malcolm X’s â€Å"The Ballot or the Bullet,† one sees the similarities in their rhetorical styles and differences in their tone and message. As seen in â€Å"I Have a Dream,† MLK has a more civilized and peaceful solution to the nation’s problems; whereas in X’s he has a will to do whatever it may take to solve the problems. Martin Luther King Jr. nd Malcolm X use the same rhetorical strategies to enhance their message in their speeches. One device or strategy is repetition. In King’s speech he repeated the phrase â€Å"I have a dream’ in order to emphasize to his audience the importance on their cause and to stimulate the people’s pride furthering civil rights. King wanted everyone to see America’s true potential and beauty and how America could be. Malcolm X also demonstrated the use of repetition when he repeats â€Å"I’m not here. † He illustrates to his audience that he is not there to talk about himself, but of the greater cause, in other words, the fight for civil rights. Though both may have used the same devices and advocated the same goal, both had opposite solutions to the nation’s problem. Another shared quality in their works is the use of antithesis. In Dr. King’s â€Å"I Have a Dream†, he states â€Å"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. † He depicts that the nation should end all discrimination and come together as one and become a unit of one another harmonizing. X also had great use of this device to amplify compassion for his cause. An excellent example is the phrase and title, â€Å"The ballot or the bullet. † He like King wanted to end all the racial barriers that the nation had, but instead of encouraging the act of nonviolence he told the â€Å"negro† community that they either take â€Å"the ballot† signifying that they wouldn’t do anything or â€Å"the bullet† that symbolizes and provokes the need to take action into their own hands and fight. Both King and X used the same methods to captivate their audiences towards their view, though communicated different messages. King and X employed figurative language in their methods of persuading their audience. In King’s â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech he conveys the use of similes in the phrase, â€Å"We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,† in order to illustrate the need for justice until all are equal. He stresses the need of discrimination to end and for justice to let all nondiscriminatory in society. He used the negativity of injustice and turned it into a positive of justice being endless water that roars through a mighty stream that will forever be flowing. X also used similes to describe that all â€Å"negroes† are in the same boat and all will get the same treatment from the white man in the phrase, â€Å"†¦you’re going to catch hell just like I am. † He emphasizes that all â€Å"negroes† whether educated or illiterate or wealthy or poor will gain the same result of the hell that is being brought upon the by the same man who happens to be white. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X felt the lack of acceptance and the treachery being brought upon them by the white man in their use of similes. Although Martin Luther King and Malcolm X may have used the same rhetorical devices to persuade the same general audience, both broadcasted entirely different messages, with entirely different tones, on what should be done on their problems. King concentrated on a more pacifist approach in his speech with the use of such words as dream, happy, greatest, and freedom. His message was to thwart racism with as much nobility as possible, so that when viewed upon you’d be the light in the darkest of rooms. He wanted people to not give up on their dreams and not lose their self control of humanity even though they were trying to abolish such wrongdoing that was very inhumane. On the other hand, Malcolm X couldn’t have had a more contrasting message and tone in his â€Å"the Ballot or the Bullet† speech. He chose words like hell, suffered, degrading, treachery and false promises to instill the vengeance in the minds of his audience and for them to commend the will to fight for freedom. He wanted to create total chaos and outrage in the souls and mind of his listeners to ensure the quickest way possible for them to hear the core of his motives. He had no intentions in believing that racism would subside or that any of the white men would see the error in their ways and beg for their forgiveness and to live in complete harmony. He thought that the only way for the black community to really get what they deserve is to use the bullet and fight. King had a solution to end the nationwide problem with a more passive and civilized solution, the brought out the goodness in humanity because â€Å"an eye for an eye will make the world blind†; whereas X wanted the use of forces on the enemy no matter how much damaged caused in order for them to give equal rights to all. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X definitely had the same ambition to end segregation and discrimination, but the question as to whose message was more effective and which was a right way to address the cause is still questionable. King sought to spread pacifism and tolerance- the moral right that you should always live by; whereas Malcolm X sought the need of destructiveness in a highly troublesome situation. One must look at the outcome and the current civil rights situations to find an answer to that question to see that without both types of arguments there would be no balance. For every light there is a cast of shadows that follow it.