Allusions In I Have A Dream Speech

Various world-known public speakers use figurative speech to captivate that audience to where they understand the topic the speaker is addressing. In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. speech, “I have a Dream”, he delivers crucial information while using metaphors and allusions. When using metaphors in a speech, they make comparisons while helping the listener create an image in their mind. Allusions, However, stimulate ideas in the audience’s minds with minimum words. The speaker relies on the listeners being able to be familiar with the meaning hidden behind the allusion. These literary devices, along with many others, are one of the reasons Dr. Kings speech so empowering. In Dr. Kings “I have a Dream” speech he uses allusions to recall a past events. In his first paragraph he addresses a famous civil rights activist by expressing, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses his audience, he uses powerful statement to make the listeners more engaged in his speech. A representation of this would be in paragraph four of Dr. Kings “I Have a Dream” speech, where he expresses, “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” Dr. King motivates his audience by using a metaphor. He compares the unfair segregation towards African Americans as a dark and desolate valley. Subsequently, he goes on to compare the freedom to come for African Americans as a sunlit path of racial justice. In the next paragraph, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. describes how they are going to obtain racial equality by announcing, “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” Dr. King uses this powerful metaphor to express that he will not stop revolting until African Americans get the equal rights they