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Martin Luther King I Have A Dream Rhetorical Analysis

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Justin Dunn Mrs. Coleman English I 4/3/23 MLK Rhetorical Analysis During Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he talked about wanting freedom and equality for all America. During King's speech approximately 250,000 Americans of every race were there to fight for equality and to spread awareness of racial injustice. King spoke with a firm, and impactful voice on how he dreamed of unity and that everyone will work together to achieve this dream. King stated that his ultimate belief was, “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.” In order to get his point across to the nation he uses Anaphora, Allusion, and Repetition. King uses Anaphora many times in his speech, He emphasizes important phrases one of them …show more content…

“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.” He is saying that in the Declaration of Independence it says everyone is equal and that they are not following that today. Everyone is discriminating against black people and treating them lower than they are, when they are just like everyone else. King emphasizes that the blacks need to stick up for themselves and keep fighting for equality and freedom. Lastly, King uses Repetition by repeating the word freedom over and over again. King wants all blacks to be free and for the whites to show them freedom. He also says “let freedom ring”, which means he wants freedom to ring throughout the whole country and world. He wants the blacks to be free from beating and torture and he wants them to be free from the racial injustice. In King's speech he used repetition for other words like we/our, and America. He wants Americans to be treated all the same and to show kindness and generosity to

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The Emancipation Proclamation signed by the same great American serves as a fundament for the freedom of all colored citizens of the United States. That is why Mr. King intentionally refers to the significance of this document. He also references the Declaration of Independence to evoke authority into his speech. King also quotes the “unalienable rights” for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. He is stating that the American government has neglected

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In the speech King shows in this quote that the Negroes should be free. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic

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He doesn’t want the African Americans to stop their fight for freedom, even if it might not happen a hundred years from now, hopefully it will happen in the future. King uses different rhetorical devices throughout the speech, he uses analogy the most as a logical approach. At one point in the speech he talks about how the African Americans are overdue for their check from the bank of justice, check meaning a promise for their freedom and justice. Dr. King used more of an emotional approach during the speech rather than a logical

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King’s letter is full of powerful and motivating quotes. King explained the topic of freedom and how it was difficult for the African Americans to achieve, he stated: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (68). The African Americans, specifically the leaders, went through extremely tough and painful experiences. According to King, for the African Americans to achieve freedom they had to fight for it, because the oppressors refused to give freedom to their victims. King knew this because of the many different painful experiences him and the other leaders experienced to receive their

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In this speech, King uses the rhetorical appeal of Pathos. One example of Pathos being used in the speech is when King states, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation,” (1). This quote demonstrates Pathos because of

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He mentions he is “compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond” his own home town.(807) When King says, “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights,”(809) he refers to blacks suffering at the hands of whites for hundreds of years. He emphasizes with “vicious mobs” that “lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brother at whim,” to invoke emotion. King calls out the city’s injustice when he mentions being denied “the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.”

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Firstly, the King of the. Jr. utilizes the repetition throughout his speech to gain the attention of the audience; he utilizes the words “freedom,” “justice,” and “equality.” King utilizes these to emphasize that his speech is about his dream to have freedom and equality amongst all races, religions, backgrounds, etc, and how he dreams of having a free and equal

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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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During the letter, he begins bringing up past events where people stood up for their freedom or rights. The first instance is alluding to the bible when he says, “Just as the prophets of the eighth-century b.c. left their villages” (375). Bringing up the prophets from the Bible further underlines his belief that blacks should stand up like the prophets and fight against the injustice. King then brings up the “Hungarian freedom fighters” (382) and their effort for freedom. The allusion conveys his point that freedom needs to be fought for, and segregation needs to be fought against.

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Dr. King also mentions that the constitution says that “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” If all men are equal that means that colored people should not be treated like that and are inferior to white people because they were created equal. He uses repetition again in his speech when he repeats the phrase “We can never be satisfied.” Dr. King uses this phrase to show the people that colored people will not be stopped until they are given equal rights. Then, he uses repetition again when he talks about the different dreams he has.

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King uses allusions to the bible to show what's right from wrong and shows how long it's been going on throughout time. In addition King says, “They’re accustomed to being slaves,” which by that he is saying that is what first comes to mind when you think of a black American at that time. Furthermore King says that the black American is so used to being oppressed that they have acquiescence, they

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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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The main idea of his speech is that all people were created equal and, although this is no longer the case nowadays, King felt it must be the case for the future. He argued peacefully, yet passionately and powerfully. In preparation for the speech, he studied the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence and he alludes to all three in his address. The intensity of King’s speech is built through parallelism, metaphors, bold statements and rhythmic repetitions:

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In a similar light, King addressed the speech ‘I have a dream’ to a peaceful mass gathering in Washington asking for change. The speech deemed racial segregation to be an inhumane practice that subdivides society into groups that essentially alienate them from the true sense of humanity; which is brotherhood. King argues that all people are created equal and directly challenged the outdated and abhorrent views that upheld the false flag of racial superiority among White Americans. Luther’s speech was a passionate rhetoric that preached his views about the future. Furthermore his speech did not

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1229 Words | 5 Pages

He incorporated a lot of biblical allusions to insist the audience that his speech is in accordance to the Bible, as King writes that he has a dream that one day, “every valley shall be exalted,” every hill and mountain “made low,” all rough places will be “plain” and crooked places “straight” and that the “glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” (Isaiah 40:4-5). On another occasion he paraphrased one of biblical statement “weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalms 30:5 ) in his words as “It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity “cite .King’s allusions to past events help to create unite both races and inspire them to tackle this problem collectively as both colors experienced American history in some form or another. King not only references the Biblical allusions which emotionally appeal to people but also mentions legal statements like declaration of independence and Emancipation proclamation by mentioning “Five score years …” to refer to Abraham Lincoln’s address and “promissory note” to direct their attention towards their legal rights as mentioned in the constitution.

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