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How Does Martin Luther King Use Repetition In I Have A Dream Speech

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Martin Luther King’s speech about equality throughout the world, and his hope for humanity has been recognized as one of the most brilliant and memorable speeches of all time. It is a powerful message against all forms of racism. King starts off by painting a picture of how much the African American race has struggled for their freedom. He continues by saying how even though they are no longer slaves, they still do not have the rights that every human being deserves. This speech also informs the audience on what they plan to do to obtain their rights. Mr. King clearly states that their plan is not to fight with violence, but with love. "We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise …show more content…

In the beginning of this speech King repeats the phrase “One hundred years later,”(I Have a Dream). When saying this, Martin Luther King is telling the people that one hundred years ago they were struggling to obtain freedom. The repetition of that phrase shows emphasis on the many things that the African American race went through. Another more memorable section of the speech in which repetition is used is towards the end. The famous words in which King states “I have a dream!” demonstrate the whole idea behind the message. He says he has a dream, he hopes, he aspires for a better future in which everyone is treated equally. That is the message that people are left with. By repeating simple phrases like “I have a dream” and “we cannot” King sings a passionate song about the desire for freedom and the fight to obtain the dream that lies within his heart. Martin Luther King tells his audience that after freedom is allowed to ring wonderful things will happen. Dr. King finishes off with a compelling use of repetition that fills the hearts of everyone who reads it or listens to it with hope. He proclaims the words that he hopes will be sung when the war for civil rights is over. "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at

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1341 Words | 6 Pages

He then repeats “go back to,” multiple times, telling the listeners of his speech to go back home and keep fighting for freedom. He lists many states and places to show that people across the nation want equality, not just the small group of Negroes in Alabama. He then repeats prolly his most famous words, “I have a dream.” These words for Martin Luther King, Jr. show what he wants to see out of America for his kids, and their kids, and everyone else's future generations to come. His last two repeated words in the “I have a dream” speech are “with this faith” and “Let freedom ring.”

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Deluged with remarkable linguistics, King’s rhetoric wholly epiphanized and unified a country that had been stricken with unrest by war and hate and thus became the epitome of the March on Washington and the summation of the Civil Rights Movement Summarized Speech The speech encapsulates the desire to remain equal among the exalted American people, those of White color. At the outset King utilizes a policy signed 100 years ago as reference to a declaration of freedom that has only been contorted to produce new boundaries on freedom;

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1041 Words | 5 Pages

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi… will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice” (“I Have a Dream”). By repeating the words ‘I have a dream’, King was able to place emphasis on the central idea of his speech – his vision of a country where black citizens are treated the same as white

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He uses the phrase “I have a dream” to show the listener what he wants accomplished. His final use of repetition in this speech is at the end when he uses the phrase “Let freedom ring” to let the audience know that he wants freedom for everyone in the

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772 Words | 4 Pages

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King jr. stood on the steps of the Lincon memorial and passionately gave his famous speech. This speech is credited with being a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement and calls for a change in the way African Americans were treated in the United States. In his ardent speech about racial injustice toward African Americans, Dr. Martin Luther King jr. captivates his audience through his use of rhetorical comparison, allusions, and ethos to call people to action against Racial discrimination against African Americans. As it was used throughout his speech king utilizes repetition to voice his thoughts for example, when King states that he still has hope for the American dream, he uses the phrase “i have a dream” multiple times emphenziseing that he still has hope.” I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed ‘ we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’”(73-74).

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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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He states, "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. " because it really etches into the audience what he is saying constantly repeating the word now to enforce his point that he wants changes done to the inequalities of justice

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King’s dialect showed the audience civil right issues, involving many rhetorical strategies using ethos, logos, and pathos, to a racially tempered crowd whom he viewed as different, but not equal. From the very beginning of it , King brings his crowd back to the origin of America when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, that freed all slaves and gave hope to the former slaves. But immediately after Dr. King speaks out on how after 100 years Blacks still do not have the free will that is deserved. He points out the irony of America because Black Americans were still not truly free.

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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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In addition to building a strong cadence, it unifies a sequence of ideas, emphasizes an idea by stating it more than once, and helps create a strong emotional effect” (p. 231). In this case, King’s repeated use of “I have a dream” resulted in all of the above, especially the strong emotional effect. Martin Luther King used the repetition of “I have a dream” several times in his speech, including these times: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of

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1720 Words | 7 Pages

King’s second most important main idea in his speech was that he wants a great nation where everyone is equal and he wants freedom to ring everywhere. In other words, Martin Luther King wants all the discrimination and segregation to end and for everywhere be filled with freedom. This helped develop and provide to the central idea by really emphasizing that he wants freedom to be all around the country and for every race, gender, or religion to be equal. To help prove his central idea Martin Luther King used the devices allusion and repetition. The first quote I found in the text was “

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466 Words | 2 Pages

In paragraphs 16-24 he repeats the phrase “I have a dream.” This is an example of repetition. MLK also uses analogy in his speech in paragraph 4. In the text, King compares American civil rights to cashing a bad check. King compares the two to show how worthless the promise of African Americans civil rights is.

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In 1963, Martin Luther King delivered one of the most influential and impactful speeches in history. King's I Have a Dream speech was consistently powerful assertions of emotional appeals, repetition and paradox. In King’s speech, he utilizes pathos to build a relationship between his black and white audience. This is evident through his references to both  black and white children and the history of slavery which appealed to the audience members of the older generation.

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1348 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the speech, another scheme King uses frequently is parallelism, the strategy of repeating similar clauses, several times. Parallelism is useful to emphasize things and ideas to the audience, which, like all the other tropes and schemes. Early in his speech, King writes “riches of freedom” and “security of justice” and then “justice rolls down like waters” and “righteousness like a mighty stream.” In these two examples, King is using parallelism to express that the African American wants justice and freedom by repeating them next to each other and mentally connecting them in the reader’s mind, which is also connected with pathos as the terms King uses subtly emphasize those words and create good feelings in the reader. As campaigning

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995 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Luther King 's speech is still relevant today because all races are not yet equal. Although racism and segregation have somewhat "improved" from 1963 until now we can still see clear signs today that racism and inequality still exists. The idea of change and equality that Martin Luther King and other activists fought for was just the beginning of a revolution that has not yet ended. King expresses in his speech, that in order for us to achieve true freedom we need to be able to work together, pray together, and stand up for freedom together knowing that one day we will all be free. King states that we should not be comfortable with the idea of gradualism, where we gradually achieve a change, but we should make a change now.

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