Rhetorical Analysis Of I Have A Dream

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“I Have a Dream” Doctor Martin Luther King Junior’s infamous speech could be said is so powerful because of its strong use of rhetoric. There’s evidence of irony, oxymoron, symbolism, connotation, but the easiest to pick out in this speech is the use of metaphor, hyperbole and anaphora. A metaphor is a comparison in which something is said to be figuratively something else. A good example of this in Dr. King’s speech is provided in the first few lines where he calls the Emancipation Proclamation a “great beacon light of hope”. Another similar example is used in calling the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence a “promissory note”. He strongly uses this “bank” theme of metaphor in the same paragraph to drive his point home: