Rhetorical Analysis Of Ive Been To The Mountaintop Speech

Determined: Dr. King’s Message
Many great speeches are increasingly different. The Braveheart speech, while famous for being powerful, is very different from another powerful speech, the one from Dead Poet’s Society. However, a very powerful speech, in many’s opinion, is the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, given shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. He shows a strong theme of determination, along with dedication, and perseverance. Through this speech, and his ideals of determination, many rhetorical devices are put to use to drive forth these points. As such, repetition of driving forces lead the listener to know that these points are extremely important. For example, when he states “I wouldn’t stop there,” in various forms, but the same basic idea that he would continue on. This drives home that he would push through, in this metaphorical situation, and wouldn’t just stop at one location in history, he would keep moving. Another significant use of repetition, or in this case, anaphora, is when he repeats the phrase

Most commonly, because of Dr. King’s background, his allusions are to the Bible, like when he refers to the Levite and the Good Samaritan. In another section, he alludes to Amos. He also mentions many non-biblical events, such as “...when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters,” and “...in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation…,” which refer to the Civil Rights movement. These help build the Doctor’s oration by assisting him in sounding more eloquent, and also thoroughly informed. The Biblical references, however, are because Dr. King himself was a preacher, and came from a deeply religious family. The way he seamlessly integrates his religion into the Civil Rights movement show how deeply focused on the issue he was, as religion was close to his