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Analyzing “i have a dream” speech by dr. martin luther king j
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Analysis of dr. king's i have a dream speech
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In Martin Luther King Jr’s “ I Have a Dream” speech, King Jr. constantly uses many different literary devices to get his underlying message across to the reader. One of these literary devices that King frequently uses throughout his speech is anaphora. One example of how King Jr. uses this anaphora throughout his speech is when he repeatedly says, “I have a dream today!”(King Jr. “I Have a Dream”). The effect that this anaphora has on King’s speech is that it allows the audience to know what he will say next in his speech and it allows the audience to say it along with King to add that extra excitement and enthusiasm about what King is preaching about. Another literary device that King uses throughout his speech is imagery because he is repeatedly
During the 1960s inequality was a major problem in the United States. One advocate for making things right was Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King organized many marches, sit-ins, and boycotting events. But one of Dr. King’s greatest and memorable works has to be the “I Have a Dream” speech. During this speech Dr. King was conveying a message of freedom for all, to 250,000 civil right followers and many more people listening to the radio broadcast. To spread his message Dr. King uses rhetorical appeals like logos to appeal to the reason of his audience, ethos by his examples of practicing what he preached, and his metaphorical language and repetition.
The iconic speech “I have a Dream”, originally named “Normalcy, Never Again”, is dubbed to be one of the greatest speech of all time. It was expertly delivered by civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The speech was delivered during the March on Washington on the 28th of August, 1963. Dr King urgently called for the end of discrimination and racial prejudice between the Americans with different colour. He delivered his speech with finesse, inspiring and persuading his audience through the use of written, audio codes and body language. The written techniques Dr King utilized were repetition and metaphor and in addition, audio codes, which were volume and pace.
King conveys his audience by the type of context he uses. He chooses the best time frame to speak, it wasn’t too early, and it wasn’t too late. People were ready to listen and see what the future had in store. King uses many methods to connect to his audience, but he uses over 60 metaphors that were easily related to so people could relate and understand. The “I Have a Dream” made the speech more welcoming because he wasn’t trying to demand something, he was just saying what the ideal situation would be and what he wishes it would be. Throughout the speech, King deftly repeats key phrases, including "Let freedom ring" and "I have a dream." Though in some situations using the same words and phrases would be considered “redundant”, in this speech, it is used to emphasize and get the point across to the listeners.
Martin Luther King Junior’s “I have a dream speech” is an important and famous speech in history, and even still a today a wonderful speech. What makes kings speech so grate? It’s his knowledge of figurative language. By using figurative language, he made people know how bad segregation was. King’s use of figurative language makes excellent examples on the effective use of metaphors.
Martin Luther King uses a lot of repetition in his speech. They are scattered throughout but very close. One of the repetitions in his speech is “I have a dream.” He uses this phrase to show what he sees in the future of America. One of the phrases he uses with it is: “I have a dream that one day this nation will and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” Another is “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their nature. I have a dream today.” (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 12) Two other repetitions he uses is “Let freedom ring” and “Free at last.” (King, M. L. Jr. (1963, Aug.28) Para 16&17)
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
Dr. King uses many allusions in the “I Have a Dream” speech to demonstrate the similarities in both cultures and periods of time as he begins his speech in paragraph 2 with an allusion to the Gettysburg Address. An allusion is a literary device that is used to reference person, place, thing or idea of historical,
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.
King uses in his speech is Pathos, which is the appeal to someone 's emotions or beliefs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. presented a strong feeling towards African-American people about how they were treated as equal individuals “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (King par. 3). Another example of pathos that Dr. King used was when he uses vocabulary and phrases, such as “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream” (King par. 12). He uses the appeal of emotion, especially the word of choice and diction to let his audience’s know what he would like to see in the
The very title of his speech was probably taken from his use of anaphora which was present throughout his speech. "I have a dream that one day the nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed¡K that all men are created equal." For the next few lines of his speech he repeated these words, "I have a dream," which helped arouse emotion in his audience and give them hope. This hope was that they would one day be treated as equals and walk side by side with the all other races. King uses his the phrase "I have a dream today," twice as its own paragraph. This statement was probably spoken with great emphasis since it gave the listeners the desire to change "today" instead of continuing to be discriminated against. Martin Luther King's speech could have very well been titled something else but because of his use of anaphora which strongly emphasized these words it earned itself the title "I Have a Dream."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. His speech, entitled “I Have a Dream” was given in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Dr. King used his speech as a rally for people, blacks and whites alike, who desired equality and social justice, but there is so much more to it than what appears on the surface. Dr. King employs a number of stylistic techniques, all of which serving a purpose too subtle for the naked eye to pick up. Dr. King uses the stylistic techniques of word choice, metaphors, and repetition to fuel hope and bring about change.
Firstly, two literary devices King used in his speech were ethos and logos. To appeal and emphasize his credibility, King began his speech with, “five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than two score years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. Aimed at the entire nation, King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice towards the mistreated African Americans and to stand up together for the rights afforded to all under the Constitution. To further convey this purpose more effectively, King cleverly makes use of the rhetorical devices — ethos, pathos and logos — using figurative language such as metaphors and repetition as well as various other techniques e.g. organization, parallel construction and choice of title.
Throughout his speech King uses parallel structures with imagery to give his speech coherence, to separate different ideas within the speech and to engage his audience. Using phrases like, “I have a dream (…)”, “We can never be satisfied as long as (…),” “With this faith we will be able to (…),” and “Let freedom ring from (…),” repetitively he creates coherence in his speech. Coherence has allowed his speech to flow his ideas in a clear and logical way, which made it easier for people of all educational background to follow along, due to which he was able to keep audience interest. The parallelism have allowed him to separate different ideas for example the vision of the future with the usage of phrase, “I have a dream (…),” the goal of the speech with usage of phrase, “We cannot be satisfied as long as (…),” the assurance of unity to give them power to fight for their rights by using the phrase, “With this faith we will be able to,” the places with much hopeless conditions giving the sense of hopefulness for things to get better by using phrases like, “Let freedom ring from (…),” the result of letting freedom ring to leave the audience with a vision of bright future at the end of his speech by using phrases like, “when we let freedom ring from (…),” and “free at last (…)”. By separating different aspects of his speech he makes it clear to the audience what he is talking about, and what he wants them to take from his speech. Also by using imagery along with the
Throughout this letter, King uses elaborate diction and complex rhetorical strategies. He addresses his audience directly; makes frequent use of balance and parallelism, understatement, and metaphor; and makes many historical and religious allusions. What effect do you think King intended these rhetorical strategies to have on the letter’s original audience of clergymen? Does King’s elaborate style enhance his argument, or does it just get in the way?