I Ve Been To The Mountaintop Analysis

Three of the most famous speeches of all times are “I Have a Dream”, “A Time to Break Silence” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”. Written by Martin Luther King Jr., these speeches were well delivered and successful. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man who certainly left an impact. King was a Baptist minister and social activist who played an extremely huge role in the Civil Rights movement. People before his time, like Mahatma Gandhi, helped to shape him into the man he was and inspired him throughout his involvement in the Civil Rights movement. King thought African Americans, people who struggled economically, and the ones who were victims of injustice deserved equality. Peaceful protests were King’s chosen method of accomplishing this

task.
He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents were Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He grew up in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, where many other prosperous African Americans also called home. King was very gifted and attended a segregated school. He was so smart that at the age of 15 he was admitted to Morehouse College. After graduating from Morehouse, he went to Pennsylvania and earned a degree in Divinity. He then enrolled at a graduate program at Boston University, where he met his wife, Coretta Scott. They married in 1953 and ended up in Montgomery, Alabama. They had four children together and King later became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
King was the force behind Montgomery Bus Boycott and March on Washington and was the president of SCLC. These events helped bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1964, King was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize and even has his own U.S. federal holiday.
Martin Luther King Jr. died on April 4, 1986. He was shot while standing on the balcony of a Memphis motel. When King died several riots broke loose among cities all across the country. The president at the time declared a national day of mourning, which is now known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This holiday has been celebrated every third Monday of January since 1986. Martin Luther King Jr. left a huge impact on the world in many ways and one of those ways was by delivering these three speeches.
Needless to say, Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches are very well spoken and written. He relates his personal life with them, which makes them easier to connect with. Martin Luther King Jr.’s delivery is excellent. Some of his speeches are serious and others intend humor. King makes impacts on the audiences with his speeches. His speeches are so meaningful and self-orientated that they are easy to follow along with. King’s delivery in general was very impactful.
In all of King’s speeches, he talks in a very slow, monotone voice. Talking slower is great because you can follow along with what he is saying, and it makes more sense because he speaks about truthful and sad topics. His voice is very monotone sounding most of the time, mostly because the topic is so serious. Other times, he raises his voice mainly to encourage people to feel the same way. When a person has an upbeat voice during a speech, they are likely going to have people feel the same way. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke loudly to get into the audiences’ heads and inform them what is going on, and to speak up about it. One of his famous speeches is: “I have a Dream”. In this speech he talks about all of the negative feedback that the blacks receive. This speech was very encouraging to blacks. By speaking loudly it gets everyone’s attention and makes the audience feel obligated to make a difference for their race, just like he did during this speech.
There are a lot of positive things that could be said about Dr. King. I am truly inspired by him and all that he did for his freedom and everyone else’s as well. He was a respectful man who just wanted peace for his supporters and everyone else as well. Martin Luther King Jr.’s delivery in his speeches is jaw-dropping. He was an amazing speaker and a true hero to all of us. His speeches are great examples of his impact on the world.
“I Have a Dream” is one of King’s most popular and greatest speeches. The speech has a unique atmosphere, purpose, and context. “I Have a Dream”, delivered on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. was given to rally the nation in a union to stop inequality in the workplace and in general. The audience members wanted to bring equality to all individuals in the nation. African Americans, especially workers all over the nation were treated unfairly. Although the African Americans were free they still struggled for complete freedom. Jim Crow laws placed unfair restrictions on African Americans. The civil rights movement started because the African Americans were tired of being pushed around and not receiving the equal rights they deserved. The purpose of the speech was to get a wider following base and push it to the next level. Martin Luther King Jr. was very determined to bring justice to the world. Many Americans stood behind King’s beliefs and looked to him as a leader.
“A Time to Break Silence” was delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City. This speech also had a distinctive feeling. At the time, the speech was delivered during the Vietnam War. King was anti-Vietnam War and pro-social justice. He tied the actions of the Vietnam War to the civil rights movement. The audiences were like many Americans at the time, they saw the damage that the war had within America and overseas. The whole purpose of the speech was to get Americans more fervent about bringing justice to the nation. Once again, Martin Luther King Jr. was rallying Americans for the movement he was so passionate about.
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” was given April 3, 1968, the day before King was assassinated. The speech was given at the Mason Temple in Memphis Tennessee. During the time the speech was given sanitation workers had been going on strike. African Americans were not receiving equal pay and they had decided to do something about it. In fact, the workers asked Martin Luther King to speak and march with them to justice. Martin Luther King Jr. graciously came and addressed boycotts, standing up for what is right and participating in nonviolent protests during his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. Thousands of individuals came to listen to King’s speech and support the sanitation workers. At this speech, the crowd was as passionate about equal rights as King was. The purpose of the speech was to excited sanitation workers and all individuals that wanted to stand up to the inequality. Overall, these three speeches all had a goal, background behind the text and a fiery audience.
These speeches are heavily analyzed through out the decades since they were given. One way these speeches have been analyzed is based on their language, also known as the ability to move people. This is the most important thing when it comes to speeches given by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. This only makes sense, since the purpose of these speeches was to move people to stand up to oppression. These speeches did make people take action. Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was watched by thousands of people on the National Mall. It became one of the biggest marches/peaceful protests ever. Another part of Dr. King’s speeches that are analyzed is the way he used his words in his speeches. If Dr. King were to say, in his speeches, that he wants to burn down the Capitol or the White House for all of the mistreatment the African-Americans received he probably would not be seen today like he is. Why is he seen today as a peaceful man? That is because his speeches were not full of hatred; the speeches were full of hope and peace. Now, sometimes there was a little anger in the speeches, but after everything African-Americans had been through at the time, a little hate is not really questioned. The last thing to be analyzed is how Dr. King delivered his speeches. If Dr. King stood up in the podium and just mumble d his words, his speeches really would not be remembered like they are. If Dr. King had stood up to give his speech and started talking with the most happy and cheerful voice ever, his speeches about oppression would not be very well like, especially at the time. Dr. King did not do his speeches like either one of those examples. Dr. King gave a loud and booming speech that was filled with enough hope and anger to make sense for a speech about oppression and the hope to get out of said oppression.
After analyzing three speeches by Martin Luther King Jr., there were many rhetorical devices used.

The most common rhetorical device used in the speeches was an anaphora. An anaphora is a phrase that is repeated frequently. King repeated multiple phrases in all three speeches evaluated. In “I Have a Dream”, King repeats the phrase “one-hundred years later”. He uses this phrase in emphasize that much time had gone by and yet, there still hadn’t been change. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”. King also uses allusions like “... we’ve come to our nations capital to cash a check” and “... the bank of justice is bankrupt”. This helps give the audience a better imagine of what King was referring to. In “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, he used an abundance of anaphors. The phrase “I would” was repeated seven times. He talks about how if God asked him what age he’d like to live in he gave many places and people he would want to see. King ended each place he’d go with “I won’t stop there”. It is thought that this was Kings’ way of saying he wasn’t going to give up on fighting for what is right. He continues with saying he is thankful to be in the 20th century so he could fight for a cause. There was also an example of antithesis, which is making a connection between two ideas or things. He used the famous words from J.F.K “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” In “A Time to Break Silence”, an anaphora was also used. King used

“we must” often. He also uses the word “us” to insinuate a human body coming together as one in such a time of need. King uses an amplification to prove a put when saying, “So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be -- are -- are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.” This amplification helps the audience know that there are people working to make our country a better place in the 1960s.
Every year, on the third Monday in January the United States celebrates a man that sacrificed his life fighting to help change America.

This day is to celebrate the birth of a man who fought to help African Americans get equality. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who led millions to help encourage a new way of living. His speeches were iconic; he connected with audiences when he spoke. He changed several things and gave people who were not treated equally hope, hope that one day their lives would be better. I believe Martin Luther King Jr. is famous because of what he stood up for. He fought not just for racial equality, but he also fought for peace. King is famous because of the courage and dignity he had to fight for what was

right.

Work Cited:
"American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence (Declaration Against the Vietnam War)." American Rhetoric. 2016. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
History.com Staff. "Martin Luther King Jr." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
" I've Been to the Mountaintop." American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King, Jr. 2016. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
"Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech - American Rhetoric." American Rhetoric. 2016. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.