Juxtaposition In Mlk Speech

Thought the 1950s and 1960s, the tension between those who agreed and disagreed with segregation and discrimination of African Americans increased. The African American community was sick and tired of just being pushed around, so they began to stand up for themselves. Many people didn’t warm up to this idea, but, due to the many inspiring speeches given throughout the movement by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and others, they started to involve themselves in the movement. Two of those speeches were “Message to the Grassroots” by Malcolm X and “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King. Even though both people had very different view on how this movement should have been like, they used similar rhetorical techniques in there speeches as a way to

In “Message to Grassroots”, Malcolm X uses juxtaposition as a way to compare historical revolutions with the Civil Right Movement. He starts his speech by describing certain aspects that, he considers, truly makes a revolution. He does this by listing well known revolts. In the listing of those insurrections, he talks about how they were all based on gaining land. The only reason they wanted to gain land was because they wanted to gain independence. After talking about this, he begins talking about the Civil Right Movement. He immediately starts to compare it to the other by saying that it is the only revolution which “the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater…”(X , 2). By saying this, it lets the audience know that the speaker doesn’t agree with the ultimate goal the Civil Rights Movement had. He wanted that goal to be the gaining of land. He believes that this was the only way for the African American community to obtain complete independence for themselves. He doesn’t think that just asking for desegregation will bring an end to the oppression of his community and him. In “I Have a Dream”, Martin also uses juxtaposition, at the start of his speech, as a way to compare the lives of African Americans before and immediately after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. He compare their lives as feeling like a “long night of captivity” and how it suddenly changed into a “joyous

In “Message to Grassroots”, once the speaker talks about what a revolution really is, he keeps repeating the same words throughout his speech. Those words are: revolution, land, and independence. By doing this, he is emphasizing the important relationship those words have. While hearing those repeated words, the audience starts to understand the words importance in the speech and their attention starts to fully concentrate on what Malcolm X is arguing about. Martin Luther King also does this in his speech. Towards the end of the speech he begins to talk about the goals he has for the future. Every time he would talk about those goals, he would repeat the phrase “I have a dream” at the beginning of his sentence. He does this because he wants to emphasize what he firmly believes the Civil Rights Movement will bring to the African American community in the future. By doing this, Martin causes the audience to feel optimistic and proud of what they are doing. They now know that they aren’t just trying to make their own lives better. They are also trying to make life better for future