Allusions In Martin Luther King's Speech

Martin Luther King’s speech was very persuading due to his ability to use language. His use of language was brilliant, with the combination of all lit elements, most importantly anaphoras and allusions. Dr. King uses allusions all throughout his speech, an allusion is an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly. An allusion is used to refer back to something in the past and help emphasize a piece of writing. As shown in the text on page 1 paragraph 2, Dr. King uses a piece from the Gettysburg address to start his speech, “ Five score years ago.” Dr. King used a piece from the Gettysburg Address because that was a very important piece of writing in American history and it really helped emphasize his speech. Another allusion used in Dr. King’s speech is stated in the text on page 1 paragraph 4 “ When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the

King was an amazing speaker, but his expertise on a lot of lit elements really helped him be one of the greatest. According to the text, the ones that really stood out and touched the audience are his use of anaphoras and allusions. Anaphoras and allusions are very important to include in a speech/paper because of their ability to connect to the audience. Anaphoras are specifically important for getting a point across and to leave it stuck in the listener’s/reader’s mind. While on the other hand allusions are more for the purpose of proving a point and getting the audience to really think about what the speaker/author is saying. Now the reason these lit elements were so crucial for Dr. King’s speech, was because it would be nothing without them. It would be nothing because it would never have gotten across to the many people it did in the same way without anaphoras and allusions. Without these lit elements he might have never persuaded some people to be on his side to fight segregation, and when fighting something of that matter, every person