Rhetorical Analysis of 'I Have a Dream' Speech

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Martin Luther King gave his most famous speech August 28, 1963 around the Lincoln memorial in Washington, DC. This speech turned out to be a very powerful speech in history, and had the greatness number of people to attend. The "I Have a Dream Speech" has many literary and rhetorical devices within in it. This speech has repetition, tone, pathos and allusion, which makes this speech remarkable.
The "I Have a Dream" speech has repetition through the whole speech. One of the words that were used constantly was "we". The word "we" is used to represent everyone in the nation no matter their race or gender. This word is also used to signify everyone coming together on one accorded. Also, he used the word phrase "I Have a Dream" many times. This phrase was letting the audience know what he …show more content…

In his speech at the beginning of the second paragraph King quoted President Lincoln by saying "five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation." With this reference to history, reciting the Emancipation Proclamation it help with the overall meaning of speech. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves. This was the most important thing to happen in history due to the fact that all individuals had some knowledge of this event. With this allusion the audience could see the correlation of how the slaves were treated and how they were being treated just like them. With King using the Emancipation Proclamation as an allusion in his speech this reference made the audience believed they could conquer obstacle of inequality as well.
Martin Luther King speeches encourage people no matter your race or gender everyone should be equal. King usage of repetition, tone, pathos and allusion throughout his speech made it the most remarkable and remember able of all speeches given in history, and for that Martin Lather King is considered to be an influential leader in the Civil Right

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