Rhetorical Analysis of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

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The famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the historic March in Washington in August 1963 effectively urged the US government to take actions and to finally set up equality between the black and white people in America. Although there were many factors that contributed to the success of the speech, it was primarily King’s masterly use of different rhetorical instruments that encouraged Kennedy and his team to take further steps towards racial equality. King effectively utilizes numerous linguistic devices, such as metaphors, anaphoras, allusions, and provides an abundance of specific examples in his address and this all makes the speech more convincing and memorable. But before we look at these rhetorical devices employed in the speech in more detail, a brief summary of the discourse may be helpful. It can be divided into two parts. In the first part King depicts the racial injustice in America and calls for action using several themed paragraphs (e.g. “Now is the time to…” and “We can never (cannot) be satisfied…”). The second half conveys King’s hope for a better future where there will be equality between the citizens of America regardless to the color of their skin. This part contains the thesis of 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.”“ The address finishes with an emotionally rich and competently improvised paragraph themed around freedom. As you read the text, you come up with hundreds of metaphors. Found almost in every line, they adorn the speech and make it more effective. Most of those metaphors are used to highlight the contrast between t... ... middle of paper ... ...ssippi is referred to more frequently than the other states. And this is not coincidental; as at that time Mississippi was relatively more associated with racial injustice, mentioning this state would bring the strongest emotions in King’s audience. All of these geographical references exemplify King’s points and make the speech more sweeping and extensive. The linguistic devices skillfully implemented by King, his remarkable emotions and brave improvisation at the end of the discourse transformed his speech into a rhetorical masterpiece. However, what I most like in “I Have a Dream” is its maneuverability. The address clearly hints at revolution, but at the same time King uses peaceful words like brotherhood, freedom, etc., and thus provides an option that everyone could buy into, an option that everyone did buy into and that changed the world for the better.

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