Gettysburg Address And I Have A Dream Speech

Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address” and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech are both similar and different in many ways. Do you want to know why these speeches are still influential today but are both far apart in time? I'll tell you. Both speeches are very influential to every generation that has come after it. These important speeches both are on the same topic on freedom, both are monumental speeches that impact today’s society, and use rhetorical devices.

Each one of these speeches are on the same subject of freedom but in two different perspectives. Martin Luther King Jr was actually going through oppression and not having the freedom that everyone else had. Lincoln was looking from the outside in, but still didn’t like what was happening to the blacks. For King, he was fighting for freedom during the Civil Rights Movement and states in his speech that “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “Insufficient funds” .” He then goes on to say that “we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches freedom and security of justice.” Meaning the freedom that they were supposed to have were taken and they want them back. Lincoln was dealing with slaves, which is much worst. He being a white man, was very brave for standing against slavery and eventually led to the

abolishment of slavery.

Both of these speeches are monumental and impact our society today.

Obviously Lincoln helped the act to abolish slavery which is a major thing because if slavery were continued, America would be completely different. King’s speech inspired people to fight for their “god given rights”. He made people see the Civil Rights Movement in a different light, and influenced them to go out and make a difference, with his “I Have a Dream” speech. You could say that at the times of both of these speeches, the hot topic was freedom. So at the time, these men were very courageous to stand up for what they believed in at those

times.

Both of these speakers (Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln) used rhetorical devices to their highest capabilities. King used repetition a plethora of times. One being the “I Have a Dream” phrase was used many times in the middle of the speech, to emphasize that freedom was a goal that needed to be accomplished. Of the multiple devices utilized in the “Gettysburg Address”, repetition of the phrases “of the people”, “by the people”, and “for the people”. This reminds everyone that Lincoln is recognizing those who gave the ultimate sacrifice did so for us by “the people” of whom the government derives, Another device would be him implementing the use of opposites. Contrasting the dead soldiers who gave their lives for “us” the living, forces the listener to be galvanized in the realization of reality and death.
In conclusion, you can say that these are the most important speeches in American history, here's why. These speeches both are on the same topic on freedom, both are monumental speeches that impact today’s society, and use rhetorical devices.