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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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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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