Literary Devices In I Have A Dream Speech

In 1963, a crowd of over a quarter of a million people gathered to listen to one of the most famous speeches in American history. This speech, the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the black community hope for a better future. At the time, segregation between blacks and whites dominated nearly every aspect of life, especially in the South (Hansen 1). Dr. King’s speech contains an abundance of excellent literary devices, which makes it an important speech to learn about to this day.
To begin, King starts with an allusion and he continues to use them multiple times throughout his speech. In his first allusion, he references Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Emancipation Proclamation. Paul T. Murray explains this

allusion in his article when he writes, “King’s use of the archaic ‘five score years ago’ is an obvious echo of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.” King alludes to Lincoln because Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed Negro slaves in America. However, King then points out in his speech that 100 years later, “the Negro still is not free” (1). The Lincoln Memorial stands behind King as he speaks these words (Carson), which adds to this allusion. The next allusion in the speech refers to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. King says, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note . . . This note was a promise that all men . . . would be guaranteed ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” (1). With this quote, King proves that the Founding Fathers wrote that all men, regardless of race, deserve equal rights in America. The third major allusion in King’s speech refers to the patriotic song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”. King says, “And this will be the day . . . when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. . .” (5). He uses this song in his speech because he wanted all Americans, including African-Americans, to feel truly free. King’s use of allusion in his speech proved that America needed to become desegregated.
In addition, other literary devices enhance the speech as well.

King uses anaphora, a frequently repeated word or phrase, a few times in his speech. According to Murray, anaphora appears often in King’s writing. For example, King repeats, “We can never be satisfied” (3-4), “I have a dream” (4-5), and “Let freedom ring” (5-6) multiple times in his speech. He repeats these phrases to emphasize his hope for equality. King also uses symbolism in the “I Have a Dream” speech. The bad check symbol emerges as the most important symbol in the speech. King says that America gave the Negro people a check that comes back marked insufficient funds (1-2). This check symbolizes equality. Furthermore, “King employs the symbol of a bad check to describe the unrealized assurance of full citizenship . . . he claims that the government’s check has bounced owing to ‘insufficient funds’” (Murray). King also uses alliteration and assonance in his speech. For example, when King says, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline” (3), he uses assonance, and when he says, “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no . . .” (4), he uses alliteration. Assonance and alliteration give the speech a poetic feel. All of these literary devices affect the speech, although they appear less than allusion and

metaphor.
Finally, the metaphor prevails as the most frequently used literary device in King’s speech.

Most of his metaphors refer to biblical sources. King uses these biblical metaphors because of his background as a Baptist minister (Carson). For example, when King says, “joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity,” he references Matthew 1:16 and when he says, “dark and desolate valley of segregation,” he references Psalm 23:4 (Hansen 101-102). Another common metaphor in the speech equates light with freedom and hope. For instance, King says, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves . . .” (1). King also says that, “Now is the time to rise . . . to the sunlit path of racial justice” (2). Both of these quotes use light to represent positive ideas. King uses this light metaphor because many people associate light with happiness and dark with sadness. In addition, nearly every paragraph of the speech contains metaphorical language. These metaphors help King express his strong feelings. For example, “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” (King 1) represents just one of the many descriptive metaphors in his speech. The combination of metaphors and other literary devices make King’s speech so powerful and memorable.
To conclude, King’s powerful language in the “I Have a Dream” speech about the unfair treatment of African-Americans tremendously

impacted the Civil Rights Movement. Few speeches contain as many literary devices as King’s, while still making a strong argument. Because of his incredible writing, the speech helped countless African-American lives and changed the course of American history.