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Rhetorical Analysis Of I Have A Dream Speech

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Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech, I Have a Dream, illustrates his dream in hopes of convincing people to support equal rights. King depicts his dream of black people living in a world where they will not be judged by the color of their skin by utilizing various rhetorical devices such as anaphora and metaphors. While doing this, he also fabricates a passionate and determined tone. Initially, King exercises anaphora in a powerful way. For example, when King repeated, “I have a dream” multiple times it impacted the audience. When a person has a dream memorable enough to share, it usually means that it has a greater meaning than just any ordinary dream. Dreams usually consist of aspirations for the future and show what a person has been truly thinking of lately. King used this to emphasize his passion towards the subject of all men being seen as …show more content…

If a bank goes bankrupt it means they have nothing more to give out to the people. The “Bank of Justice” would work the same way If people refuse to realize that justice is no longer given out to the people, then how would it be possible for blacks to receive the justice they should be given? King recognized this issue and pointed out that justice had been incredibly scarce, especially towards blacks. Another though- provoking metaphor King initiated was, “Storms of persecution and flames of police brutality”. When there’s a storm, a human’s initial reaction is to run from it or take shelter because it is seen as dangerous. The persecution against blacks made them want to escape and stay clear from the people persecuting them. Just the word “brutality” from the quote already gives off a negative connotation towards the whole issue. In most cases, the police put there to protect the people ended up turning against blacks just because of their skin color and it led to brutality. King’s use of metaphors gave a deeper meaning to his dream of blacks being equal regardless of their skin

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Pain and suffering which resulted in Kings action to protest and denounce these injustices. Pain and suffering which came from the killing of innocent African American children who were caught in the midst of hate. Suffering that came with when the killers of the innocent girls killed in the church bombing were set free just because they were white. Pain from a justice system that only served the whites but left the people of color out and were treated badly because of the color of their skin. King is trying to convey the messages that is not time to wait but to act because they a tired of the

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One way that he conveyed this idea was by using personification. In his letter King wrote, “As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us (King 2).” King used personification to exemplify their struggles and disappointment that appeared regularly while fighting for equality. This use of figurative language exposes the audience to their struggle for freedom. Although “a shadow of deep disappointment” doesn’t directly fall upon the Black community, it let the clergymen know that their neglect towards fulfilling their promise of removing humiliating sins had deeply crushed the Black community.

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King writes, "but when you have seen viscous mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sister and brother at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policeman curse,kick,and even kill you black brother and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negros brothers smothering in a air tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park... when you have to answer for a five year old son who is asking "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"(586-87). King explains other situations that his community cannot do because the color of their skin. This paragraph is very powerful so how poorly the black community was treated. It also show their daily struggle of how there were these new thing but they could not attend because their skin color. To conclude this paragraph kings says "there comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the deep abyss of despair.

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When King describes the acts of violence against his “black brothers and sisters” from law enforcement he is able to appeal to the emotions of many by making people try to sympathize with him and his cause. As King states, “but when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill,” (King 2) he shows how misguided the statement of the clergymen was. He does this by exhibiting real life examples of what he himself has seen occuring as a result of peaceful demonstrations furthering his arguments validity. Not only physical harm from law enforcement is affecting African Americans, but the way the law works is too. With Kings example of the segregation that the law causes he uses the scenario, “as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park… and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children,” (King 2) to show how an innocent child understands the issue of racism.

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King used words in the following quote to connect his current issue to one of the past, “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungry was ‘illegal.’ It was ‘illegal’ to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.” (King). When talking about the cruel actions of white people against African-Americans, he uses words associated with crime. Through this, he shows his audience that when he says these acts were inhuman, he means it.

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The “I Have a Dream” speech is well known throughout history to be one of the most famous speeches to be on the subject of civil rights. Throughout the entirety of “I Have a Dream”, Dr. King uses pathos more than logos. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.”

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We live in a world with currently many conflicts from the racial disparity in high incarceration rates to gun violence and the war over gun rights. In his letter, King describes that Black Americans have no identity and that the oppressed cannot remain oppressed forever. King implies that they cannot be told to “wait for justice” because if they simply

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They still were victims of police and civilian brutality; there were separate bathroom, facilities, and schools for colored people around the nation. Majority of African American citizen during that era can relate to this, they all have been through these situations for decades. King said this to appeal to the audience in order to unite them and establish what he’s saying is

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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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Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech). King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. King was able to. join Jefferson and Lincoln ranks of men who've shaped modern America with a single phrase. 50 years after the March on Washington we recognized that King was able to reshape the economic landscape for Black Americans.

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used allusion, metaphors, and repetitions in his speech to try to convince Americans to open up their door of selfishness and welcome change. Dr. King used metaphor to let people better understand things that they don’t necessarily know. KIng also used allusions to show people his ideas compared to theirs, and to make people remember certain things that those people said that goes against what the audience is doing. Finally, Dr. King used repetitions to show people something that is really important, and to remind them about things in the past that should be remembered. In the end, Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream” speech used many rhetorical devices to try to convince people to change their ways, open the doors of selfishness, and invite change.

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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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Throughout his speech he implies a lot of metaphors to make his speech effective and influencing. For example, King constantly describes the Negroes as being “crippled” by the “manacles of segregation”, “Storms of Persecution,” and “chains of discrimination.” Through these metaphors King indicates the crises the Negroes face. A few of King’s strongest metaphors are his references to prejudice: “the quick sands of racial injustice”, the “heat of oppression”, “the dark and desolate valleys of segregation”, and the “chains of discrimination.” King also indicates the unbearable inequality by creating an image: “the sweltering summer of the negro’s discontent.”

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