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I Have A Dream Speech Figurative Language

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Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech is very influential. It was deliberately written so that he could try to convince the people of America to end segregation. He believed that nothing has been done to stop segregation and he feels the time is now to end it. He used literary devices to explain why segregation needs to be ended now.

An example of figurative language from his speech is “I have a dream”. This is an example of anaphora. This is trying to tell the audience about the dream King has for America’s future. He repeats this phrase to impact the audience’s perspective and to sway them to his side of the topic. The African Americans in the crowd can agree with him the most because they have gone through the struggles he is …show more content…

He repeats this phrase so that the audience can understand that King believes that in order to let freedom ring, they have to get rid of the racist emotions out of the people in the most racist states. The people who would agree with him most would be the blacks living in the racist states, while the people who would disagree with this would be the racist people of America. Dr.King also used allusion in his “I have a dream speech”. An example of this would be “My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing”. This is a line from the song “America the Beautiful”. He is trying to inform segregationists that they are not free and they don’t have liberty, and when they do have liberty, the song will have a different meaning. He sings this anthem that all American’s can recognize, and he twists the words of the song and he uses those words to create an emotion of sadness in the audience to show that the life of an African American is bitter. The people who would agree with this the most is the nationalists of America and the African Americans. Another example of Allusion is “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are

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I Have a Dream’s Rhetoric A momentous day in history is exalted by the enthralling speech and resonating imagery of a man whom wanted to make a difference. Just over 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was implemented, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a very riveting speech to over 250,000 Americans during the March on Washington, the nation’s largest demonstration of peaceful protest. With peace typically comes logic of which King very much emanated from his speech. With powerful rhetoric, King captivated an entire crowd and subsequently the entire nation with emphasizing while being freed from the travesty that was slavery people of color are still placed in chains by society’s gruesome yet commonplace demarcations.

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King gave more of a poetic speech, “I Have a Dream.” He used anaphora throughout his entire speech. One of Dr. King’s famous line is “I have a dream,” in which was repeated numerous of times. His dream was for the United States to end all hatred towards his people and for everyone to treat all men equally. Dr. King also said, “Let Freedom Ring!”

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Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech had a great deal of logos and pathos appeals to persuade his audience to speak out against segregation and to give all men the rights they deserve. He often gave a clear line of reasoning supported by evidence in his speech, like when he says: “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”... America has defaulted on this promissory note, ... given the Negro people a bad check… which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” (King para. 4)

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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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“I Have a Dream” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963 gave many examples of metaphors and allusions to build his argument. Such as alluding where they are located, comparing the treatment that African Americans were getting to handcuffs and restraints, comparing racial injustice to quick sand, and comparing brotherhood to a solid rock. These examples add support to back up his argument of how terrible the Africans Americans were being treated. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses metaphors and allusions to enhance his speech and make his point clear. To begin Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses allusions to tell where they are while he is giving the speech.

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He places the strong authority of the declaration on his side to show how the American people are in contradiction to their own “sacred obligation” and the Negros have gotten a “bad check.” A metaphor representing the unfulfilled promise of human rights for the African Americans. King skillfully evokes an emotional response from all races with the use of religion: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” By doing this he finds a common ground that brings black and whites closer with a common belief in God they share, as well as the mention of

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Words can change the world in many ways. Many of those ways can really make an impact on a person’s life or mind set. In the speech “I Have A Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it proved to solidify the peace and fairness that he aimed to gain in this country by ending segregation between black and white people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. vividly painted his vision of a better future for people of all colors in America.

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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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Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower.

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King used robust figurative language to persuade his audience, to impress upon them the severity of the situation. The fact that king was a preacher also contributed to his speech in many ways. Some of these ways included that King was practiced in the art of persuasion, he carefully chose his language each week for his sermon, and was clearly comfortable delivering a speech after the many hours of practice being a preacher provided. King used figurative language to empower his speech in such as way that the audience could see, feel, and hear what King saw, felt, and hear. King provided vivid imagery, one aspect that Lucas

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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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I have a dream speech Analysis Martin Luther king Jr once said,“ I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation.” He addressed these words on August of 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial after marching through the streets of Washington. He addressed segregation injustice and racial discrimination against African Americans that took place during his era, in his “I have a dream speech.” He recognized that american was founded on freedom, democracy where each individual has a voice and matters. Only few weeks back protesters were getting arrested for fighting for equality.

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King also used a number of figures of speech which includes allegory and parallelism. He applies allegory in the beginning of the speech, comparing banking to the rights of black U.S. citizens, “America has given the Negro people a bad

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