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Dr King I Have A Dream Speech Essay

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The Power of Dr. Kings I Have A Dream Speech On April 28th, 1963 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech to thousands of civil rights supporters during the March on Washington, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King’s speech touched the souls of every listener making each and every civil rights activist and supporter believe that a change will come. The question for you is do you consider his speech as one of the greatest of all time, if not the best? During Dr. King’s speech he used a plethora of rhetorical devices in which he used in an exceptional way with an influential tone. The way these rhetorical devices were utilized displayed just how educated King was. Since he knew he was addressing an uneducated …show more content…

King’s speech in a positive way; Metaphors played the biggest part of his speech. A metaphor, much like an analogy, is a figure of speech that compares two dissimilar things, but a metaphor isn’t as elaborate as an analogy. For example during Dr. King’s speech he says, “The negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” Along the same lines he also states, “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.” If you noticed, in these two metaphors he used nature to make his comparisons; in fact, a majority of his metaphors came from the use of nature. Another clever metaphor that was used was when he said, “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” Here he compares drinking to a person’s attitude. Dr. King’s most famous and probably his best metaphor of his speech is the one where he compares the civil rights of the people, in specific people of color, to a bad check. Similarly, he uses this metaphor when he used his analogy. Dr. King states, “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”” With this metaphor he is saying the people have come to Washington to cash a check and in return the government has given them a bad

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In DR.King's famous speech that was spoken in the shadow of the Lincoln monument was one of the greatest speeches ever given. In this speech he is caught using what is called pathos appealing to the listener's emotions and less so using logos giving information that proves a point with data and logic. This leads me to the conclusion that he uses pathos better and I think that he knew this too because you can see he uses this in his most important speeches or letters as it helps get support for his cause. In his ¨I Have a Dream¨ speech Dr king says things like ¨one hundred years later the Negro still is not free one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination¨

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Moreover, King uses these three rhetorical elements to express the treatment African Americans faced, the unjust laws by using examples back in history to show that these laws were not right at all, and his reason as to why he is in Birmingham due to the racial inequality whites have shown towards negroes.     King main idea of his letter is “Injustice anywhere will be a threat to justice everywhere.” (King 1) Therefore, King is using this letter as a way of saying we have to protest racism and injustice, but we cannot do it violently because then that will be considered unjust too. Martin Luther King uses a tone of righteousness to talk about the right versus the wrong and explaining why what he is doing is correct.

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King’s persuasive prowess in the speech is how he used logical and sensible arguments. A great example is when he states that their children are “stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity” by segregation laws and policies (King). He is alluding to the fact that African American children feel singled out and embarrassed by the fact that they are segregated from the white children. Most parents would never want their children to suffer through that kind of embarrassment, and yet African Americans experience it daily. A second example of King using logic and reasoning is when he states, “But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free.

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"I have a dream" by Martin Luther King is one of the most well-known speeches that radically changed the landscape of the Civil Rights Movement due to the impact it had on the listeners in attendance as well as the articulate and fluent language. It was on the date August 28th, 1963 that Martin Luther King proudly presented his unforgettable speech in front of over 200,000 people assembled around the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. To many African Americans in the 1960s, his speech was uplifting and encouraging. The factor motivating King to write this speech was that he saw how African Americans were not treated equally even though the Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed

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“I Have A Dream” “I Have A Dream”, a quote that many Americans hold dear to their hearts and a quote that is remembered and is associated with an unforgettable movement in history of the Untied States of America. From 1954-1968 one of the most memorable movements in history took place and will not be forgotten is the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the many greats remembered and recognized in the movement for being an influential leader of his time. Having given over 2000 speeches, MLK(Martin Luther King) has one particular speech that stands out from the many and it is his “I Have A Dream” speech. MLK’s message being about peace, unity, fairness and freedom for and to all people shines through in this speech.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a man with strong motives and was able to move people through his words and speeches, such as his speech “I Have a Dream”. King was a civil rights activist and his speech’s main purpose was to end racial segregations in the 1960s. Through out his speech’s paragraphs King gives a lot claims. Some of the claims King mentions are: “ ‘the Negro is still not free;’ ‘black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ ‘America has given the Negro people a bad check’.

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On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave us one of one of the most rhetorically moving speeches ever given. Titled as the “I Have a Dream Speech,” he read this speech to the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. As a civil right mover he gave this great speech to all Americans (black and white) so that he could give off the idea of equality on the same level. Because of his crowd of mix races King made sure to make his speech imploring to all no matter what the race that they may be. He uses metaphorical imagery, powerful diction,and symbolism to create an impact on the audience.

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Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream” is vastly recognized as one of the best speeches ever given. His passionate demand for racial justice and an integrated society became popular throughout the Black community. His words proved to give the nation a new vocabulary to express what was happening to them. Martin was famously a pacifist, so in his speech, he advocated peaceful protesting and passively fighting against racial segregation.

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most well-known and critically acclaimed speeches of all time. Every child, every teenager, every adult has at some point in their lives heard King’s speech. They have heard the words “I have a dream” ring through the air. The success of King’s speech is not accidental by any means. King’s speech bears many of the hallmarks of a strong persuasive speech.

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In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech he uses many different rhetorical devices. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. These purposes can be similar, or different. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing.

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Although, King's speech which took place on August 28th, 1963, motivated many to stand up for who they are and fight for their rights as people living in America. Dr. King's words were eye openers to many because it gave them the realization of how cruel this discrimination was. His demonstration affirmed the nation that everyone does not need to tolerate the dreadful wave of racial injustice. The final result was a peaceful demonstration of how change positive change is frequent in American history. This I Have a Dream speech will always be recognized due to the power it had on the nation as a whole and its immortal notion of the horrors of racism.

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Diversity has played a big part throughout many years of life. Before the year 1963 when MLK Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech, separation between genders and races played a really big role in the world 's society. Different genders and races were separated almost in every aspect of the world. Whites and blacks were separated on busses, in movie theatres, water fountains, schools, and many more. MLK Jr. did not like the idea, and then helped change the world to not be separate and be considered one after his world changing speech he gave in 1963.

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To achieve this, he used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to pathos and repetition. His passionate tone flowed through these strategies, increasing their persuasive power on the people and encouraging them to follow/listen to his message on racial injustice. While pathos elicits an emotional response from the audience to make them more accepting of King’s ideas, repetition structures the speech and emphasizes key ideas for the audience to take away from listening. These two techniques played a crucial role in furthering his purpose and in provoking a powerful response from the audience that made this speech memorable and awe-inspiring. To this day, King’s speech remains one of the most famous and influential speeches in

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Martin Luther King 's uses various literary devices such as metaphors, personification, similes, and imagery in his speech so that his audience would be able to better understand and visual what he is saying. An example of a metaphor in King 's speech is when he compares the deprivation of African American rights with "a bad check that has come back from the bank of injustice marked with insufficient funds". He states that we must cash a check that will give us the riches of freedom and security of justice. This metaphor is referring to the freedom and rights that African American 's deserve and are promised but are not given. An example of personification in his speech is "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

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Throughout his speech he implies a lot of metaphors to make his speech effective and influencing. For example, King constantly describes the Negroes as being “crippled” by the “manacles of segregation”, “Storms of Persecution,” and “chains of discrimination.” Through these metaphors King indicates the crises the Negroes face. A few of King’s strongest metaphors are his references to prejudice: “the quick sands of racial injustice”, the “heat of oppression”, “the dark and desolate valleys of segregation”, and the “chains of discrimination.” King also indicates the unbearable inequality by creating an image: “the sweltering summer of the negro’s discontent.”

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