Martin Luther King I Have A Dream Speech

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On August 28, 1963, around 250,000 individuals had listened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. This speech was addressed to the nation, specifically segregationists and the government, about Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of abolishing the line between the white and black races for good. King had oftenly repeated himself in his speech many times. Doing so emphasized the importance of his ‘dream’. King references the Gettysburg Address that was written by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. “Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” (King 1). At the end of the speech, he mentions major disputes in history that makes us who we are today. “...we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing…” (King 6). Martin Luther King Jr. used figurative language such as metaphors, allusions, and repetition in his speech to create a lasting impact in our nation that fought segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. had created a lasting …show more content…

The usage of that element emphasized the importance and purpose of his address. He puts the most stress on using the term ‘I have a dream…’, “ I have a dream ... I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification…” (King 5). Another example is when he speaks, “I have a dream today ... I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low” (King 5). King also speaks of ‘letting freedom ring’, “So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire” (King 5). He also says, “Let from ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania” (King