Martin Luther King Speech Parallel Structure

Analysis of Sentence Structure in Martin Luther King’s Speech
1. Martin Luther King uses parallel structure for most of the speech to convey the main messages through imagery.
2. These are just 2 of the many examples from the speech which shows how he engages his audience by using imagery with the parallel structure of sentences. Other examples include, “I have a dream… Let freedom ring… et cetera ” I will briefly discuss these two phrases as well to explain why parallel structure makes his speech coherent and effective, and then use the following examples to discuss in detail how using imagery with parallel structure makes it even more effective.
• “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of

police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." 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.”
• “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

3. Parallel structure is type of sentence structure that uses a grammatical pattern within a sentence or more than one sentence to make the differences or similarities prominent. The ones I’ll be explaining how King uses grammatical patterns within the sentence and in more than one sentence, to make similarities of the ideas stand out.
4.

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

parallelism in his speech he creates a mental picture in their minds and engages them emotionally making them enthusiastic about the movement. Giving them a mental picture engages them emotionally as they feel the suffering as he describes the problems, and they feel the power when he describes how they will achieve it together, and they feel the sense of freedom when he describes what it will be like when they let freedom ring. Therefore through parallelism his speech gained coherence, conciseness, and audience which made his speech effective.