I Have A Dream Speech Rhetorical Analysis

On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood up in front of a crowd in Washington D.C. and delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. He delivered his speech with such fire and passion that many teachers use it to teach about rhetoric. King was a phenomenal speaker and an even better writer, as he wrote emotions and logic into his speech. He uses allusions, anaphoras, metaphors, similes, alliteration, synecdoche and more to convey to the listener and to the reader his emotions and passion about equal civil rights. In his speech, King was able to use many literary devices that contributed to his rhetoric. His wise choice of words made this speech as famous as it is today. In only the first paragraph of King’s speech he alludes to Abraham Lincoln and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was the first step to freeing the slaves. He calls it “a momentous decree,” and uses a simile to further explain just how important the decree was to gaining freedom for the African-Americans in America. As one is more likely to trust a factual

The premise of an entire paragraph being one, “We’ve come to this nations capital to cash a check,” as they really did not come to D.C. to cash a check but rather to act upon the promise of freedom that was promised to them in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Considering where he is giving this speech, the mention of these documents important to our American history was fitting and appropriate. He also uses metaphors to further elaborate upon his point that African-Americans have not been treated as equals in history and that they still are not treated equal as he calls Mississippi, “ a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression,” which moves readers emotionally, as they are convinced into associated injustice and oppression with