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I Have A Dream And Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Dreams are a common thing in society that hold and bond people together. Hope is in many aspects of our life as well, and fuel many of the wishes Americans possess. From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's famous “I Have a Dream” speech, to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun play, we find that accomplishing these dreams and goals is something that takes courage or passion. Throughout these two pieces of literature, equality, racism, dreams, and hope are common themes. We can find that real human beings and simple characters share the desire of freedom, and strive for better opportunities in life. As many of us have read, it is stated in Dr. King’s speech, “But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free.” (King 1). By reading this, …show more content…

Identity and moral responsibility are portrayed in this story, as well as Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic speech. In his speech he talks about who they are and who they should be. It is important to maintain your identity while still fighting for your freedom. “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline” ( King 2). This quotes explains that, while fighting, we must stay true to ourselves and not get out of control. Our action define who we are, so it is essential that continue to be ourselves and fight for what we believe. Just like the play, Beneatha struggles finding her true background. Along the way she loses focus on what her true dreams are. She believes they may just be meaningless in the vicious circle of discrimination and segregation. Identity is something that everyone, white or black, should always keep intact. I believe both pieces of literature portray this very special detail. Moral responsibility also plays a big role in each piece. In A Raisin in the Sun , Walter believes that it is his responsibility to ensure better opportunities and a better future for his future generations. He wants to own his liquor store so badly, he goes through extreme measures and ultimately ends up losing all the money given to him from his father’s death. Their new home is just the next best thing for him to hold on to. Fortunately, the family is able to move into the new house and area.

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Since the 18th Century Transatlantic Slave Trade, Africans Americans have been confined to a box full labor, mistreatment, and abuse. Countries all over the world slowly understood that having a skin color other than white does not mean that you are less valuable as a human being. However, in the United States of America the idea of African Americans being equal to whites was unreal. Leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and key leader during the Civil Rights Movement after World War II, fought so blacks and whites could coexist and so the future could be brighter even if he was not in it. On MLK’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” MLK speaks with

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In MLK’s famous letter from Birmingham Jail and “I Have a Dream”, he uses different types of persuasive arguments such as appealing logic as well as charging his language to affect people’s emotions. Although Dr. King uses mostly pathos in the letter from Birmingham Jail, he still uses facts and evidence to support his claims. By appealing to both the logical and emotional side of people Dr. King provides good reasons to join the fight for African American rights and the end to segregation. Despite using mostly charged language aimed at people who play more the moral side of life than the people who play more to the logical side of life, Dr. King still states strong evidence about the injustices African Americans face daily.

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For dozens of years, black people were treated like animals, even decades after they were “freed” from the shackles of slavery. It wasn’t until the mid-1950’s that one man took it into his own hands to make a change, and his name was Martin Luther King, Jr., a name with which virtually the entirety of America is familiar. King did a lot of monumental things, and almost all of his influence lay within his mastery of word manipulation and rhetoric. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of his use of rhetoric happens to be in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, written to a group of white clergymen in 1963 after they criticized his campaign.

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1236 Words | 5 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr. inexplicably opened the eyes of Americans across the nation with his role in the movement and his use of resonating imagery, excellent emotional appeal, powerful voice, and evocation of logic in his “I Have a Dream” speech. With such an enthralling rhetoric he gained a vast amount of support and exponentially increased the pride in standing up for what’s righteous and just. Exemplifying the throes of being a colored person, King evoked sympathy whilst simultaneously applying the valid logic that no human should be subjected to lesser standards. His rhetoric wholly changed American history that day and thus conveyed his ability to maintain equanimity throughout all of the

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“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get” – Fredrick Douglass. The Life of Fredrick Douglass by Fredrick Douglass was published in 1845. He was a slave who ran away to the North to be labeled as free in America. He soon became an abolitionist who was the voice of civil and political rights of slaves. On the other hand, a play called, A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959, expresses how wealth is a dream in Walter’s eyes.

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Introduction Many writers and speakers have been influenced by the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a Dream" and Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July". These speeches have helped evolve the history so drastically that black American’s now have freedom and to never be segregated like they were in the past.

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Another speaker, Martin Luther King Jr. states the difference between being controlled with fear and speaking out with pride. King starts to get more personal describing his actions and what he did to achieve overcoming fear. He illustrates how he couldn’t be quiet and just obey and how he needed to stand up and speak out to start something new. He then speaks how, “For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent” (King, “Beyond Vietnam”). Martin Luther King Jr.

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In Dr. King’s speech, “I Have a Dream,” he shows the community how he feels about the problem and how he intends to solve it. On page 5, he says “When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every city and every state we… will be able to join hands and sing the words of the old Negro spiritual”

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847 Words | 4 Pages

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination,” (King). He uses the phrase “one hundred years later” to reference how it has been one hundred years since the Emancipation Proclamation. However, even one hundred years after this momentous occasion for African Americans, their lives have hardly changed for the better, as they are still held down by “the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” which afflicted them all those years ago. These snippets from the speech make it evident how King often used cerebrally appealing arguments in order to convince people to help him fight for

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1089 Words | 5 Pages

In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” the author explores and retells the events and movements behind the Civil Rights movement. King, writes about the determination and motivation of the African American community during this time. He writes about what it was like to be a vital part of the Civil Rights movement, and most importantly he writes about how the community rallied together to fight a battle that could have been very violent with nonviolent force. King illustrates the drive to demand freedom and paints a vivid picture of what actually occurred. The cover of his book contains a quote, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” throughout King’s book the reader is allowed

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1611 Words | 7 Pages

The Proclamation gave hope to millions of black slaves. However it never quite fulfilled its promises. Although the document was meant to free slaves, King brought it the attention of the congregation that it was a hundred years later and they were still not free. They were still not free from segregation, discrimination, and poverty. He states, "The Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land".

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558 Words | 3 Pages

He explains how African Americans know exactly how it feels to go through the pain of not having freedom given directly to them - something which is an unalienable right- but instead, waiting on someone of “higher authority” to decide when it should be given. (King 566). Martin Luther King was and still is til’ this day a very important figure of black history. He was very influential during the civil rights movement, because he consistently fought for the freedom of African Americans. In King’s words, Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

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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732 Words | 3 Pages

In Susan Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the themes identified are dreams and faith that each character signifies throughout their struggles in their daily lives. The theme dreams refer to how each of the main five characters: Ruth Younger, Walter Lee Younger, Travis Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Lena Younger dealt with different oppression situations that took part in their lives that put the dreams on hold. Furthermore, the theme also connects towards the faith that each main character had to pursue to keep their family together after the death of a love one. The characters’ in A Raisin in the Sun tries to chase after a separate dream, unfortunately their dreams are utterly pushed away to realize the importance of their family

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963 Words | 4 Pages

In the speech MLK states “One hundred years later the negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the negro is still crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” In his speech he repeats the saying “One hundred years later” he is doing this to show that African Americans that they have not been equal to whites for 100 years. These few words are MLKS way of telling the audience that even after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation 100 years ago that there is still segregation. After all the accomplishments for African Americans they are still being treated differently than whites.

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