I Have A Dream Speech Rhetorical Essay

In August 1963, “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to over two hundred thousand African Americans. His motive was to get African Americans their freedom. The oratorical style of his speech has aggression shown in some parts during the speech, uses a great amount of literary devices, and emphasizes certain topics and ideas that he conveys. The oratorical style of the speech gives us a sense of what the main point is. He wanted to prove a point how freedom is their natural right. Everyone deserves the same rights and no one should be underestimated.

Dr. King says some passages or phrases filled with aggression. This puts a lot of emphasis on the things he says to the crowd. For example, Dr. King says in the speech, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” Moreover, he pauses between his speech to get a sense of what he means and how the crowd can support the claims he’s making through the

King uses a lot of literary devices that shows his oratorical style. He uses metaphors, anaphora, ethos, pathos, logos, and unique forms of figurative language. An example of Dr. King’s use of metaphors, he says, “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” Consequently, African Americans do get their rights, but they had to face a lot of discrimination. An example of the use of anaphora is, “Let freedom ring…, for a bunch of times as he ends off his speech. Dr. King uses ethos, pathos, and logos to show the audience that they should have confidence within themselves to get their freedom. He uses ethos as, “One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.” Similarly, Dr. King uses his own ways of using pathos and