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How Does Martin Luther King Jr Use Literary Devices

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McCusker, Luke Mr. Shipp English 1, Block 1 5/26/23 Literary Devices Inspired Change “I Have a Dream” a famous speech presented by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, which talked about how African Americans shouldn’t back down from racial injustice. The speech included many writing techniques and literary devices. Literary devices that standout in the speech include Martin Luther King Jr.’s use of metaphors, anaphora, and allusion. To begin with, Martin Luther King Jr. used a famous literary device known as a metaphor. A metaphor is when one thing is said to be another without using the words “like” or “as”. A famous metaphor that Martin Luther King Jr. used in his speech was “This Momentous Decree is a great beacon of light to millions of Negro slaves,” this metaphor can be found in paragraph two of the speech. Another famous metaphor that King uses in paragraph three is,”In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check…a check that has been marked insufficient funds,” by using these metaphors he shows that slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation but the “check”shows how they have not gotten the right they’ve …show more content…

Anaphora means to repeat a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. “I Have a Dream” included multiple examples of anaphora. MLK Jr. included “100 years later…” in paragraph two of the speech, which was a form of repetition to show how African Americans were freed 100 years ago but do not have any of the rights that they were promised 100 hundred years ago. Another famous example of anaphora in “I Have a Dream” can be found in paragraphs 18-20 and the anaphora is also the title of the speech. MLK Jr. uses anaphora to show how people shouldn’t back down from racial injustice and that they should have hope for the future. By using anaphora it gives an emphasis in the speech, which MLK Jr. is trying to reach the

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