A Rhetorical Analysis: of I Have a Dream

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In Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, King makes use of an innumerable amount of rhetorical devices that augment the overall understanding and flow of the speech. King makes the audience feel an immense amount of emotion due to the outstanding use of pathos in his speech. King also generates a vast use of rhetorical devices including allusion, anaphora, and antithesis. The way that King conducted his speech adds to the comprehension and gives the effect that he wants to rise above the injustices of racism and segregation that so many people are subjected to on a daily basis. Throughout King’s speech, he uses the rhetorical mode, pathos, to give the audience an ambience of strong emotions such as sympathy. For example, whites had sympathy for African Americans and parents had sympathy for their children. The way that King tells his speech takes the focus off of race and reestablishes it on the aspiration of a world without racism. “…by making his audience no longer hate Negroes and instead hate racism and wish for a new, better world…” (L., Anson). Dr. King made the audience sympathize with African Americans, helping the audience realize that racist people and bias ideas caused the true dilemma of discrimination. Through making the audience realize this, he also gave them hope for a world reborn without racism, without segregation, without discrimination, and without hate. King wanted his children to live in a world without judgment of race, but with the consideration of personality, for nobody should not endure judgment because of the way that they look. He spoke of his own children, which introduced a reinforced emotional attachment to the audience; this gave many parents a scenario to relate to because no parent wants ... ... middle of paper ... ...s speech made an immense impact on the injustices of segregation and discrimination against people. Works Cited Bates, Claire. "Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech: What does it tell us about him?." BBC. BBC History, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.." NAACP. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . King, Martin L. "I Have a Dream." archives. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration , Web. 21 Nov. 2013. . L., Anson. "Rhetorical Analysis of the "I Have a Dream" Speech." Teenink. Emerson Media, Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .

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