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Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

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In his moving I Have A Dream speech, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. effectively captivates his audience through the use of emotional persuasion, specifically allusion and repetition, to stand up in the Civil rights movement and declare racial discrimination as a great injustice. King supports his thesis by using the emotional vulnerability of his audience to his advantage, specifically using alliteration and repetition to drive his purpose home. His purpose of his speech, to declare that racial discrimination is a great injustice, is used to convince his audience to support the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. The audience itself is unspecified as King chooses to target all groups as this, in his opinion, is a national issue that everyone …show more content…

heavily utilizes the emotional vulnerability of his audience when promoting his claim of racial inequality being a great injustice. King begins his speech with an intense introduction, “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 example shows King’s use of the “American Dream” to motivate his audience to support his purpose. At this point in time American’s are driven by the belief of America being a source of freedom and equality, patriotism being at an all time high, and he applies that to his speech. As he continues, he refers to the Emancipation Proclamation as a, “great beacon light of hope,” (King 1). This excerpt relates the current issue back to slavery; a point in history that no American enjoys remembering. MLK does this to strike the listeners’ heart strings. Emotional vulnerability is such an important thing to be able to utilize as people are extremely reliant on their emotions, and Martin Luther King Jr. knows exactly how to use it. He specifically uses a rhetorical tool known as …show more content…

King uses repetition of the phrase, “I have a dream,” (2). The repetition of the preceding phrase allowed him to clarify the importance of the faith you should have in humanity and in America. King believes that America started with a dream, that slavery ended with a dream, and that the inequality of p.o.c. will end with a dream. He also repeats the term, “Let freedom ring,” (King 3). King uses this term specifically in order to mimic the sound of rejoicing slaves. Not only is this repetition, but it is also an example of alliteration. MLK’s use of repetition is one of his most used devices of rhetorical strategies, and arguably most

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King uses repetition in his writings to give it more power and rhyme. Mr. King uses repetition in his I have a dream speech because it creates a sense of power that emphasizes the main points as well as lets the speech flow smoothly. He uses the repetition of the phrase “One hundred years later,” to enhance that one hundred years later the Negroes are still fighting for civil and legal rights. On page 262, paragraph 5, he repeats “we refuse to believe,” trying to get the point across that the fighters for justice don’t believe that they cannot give them what they are asking for. He also uses the repetition of “we can never be satisfied” to show that they won’t be satisfied until they get what they’re asking for such as racial equality, rights to vote, and desegregation.

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King inspired millions to change the situation they were in and end discrimination with his emphatic diction. Unbeknownst to many, allusion was one of King’s most powerful and persuading forms of rhetorical devices in his, I Have a Dream,” speech. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is guaranteed to both black men as well as white men, was a phrase spoken by King

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630 Words | 3 Pages

Rhetorical and literary devices has been utilized to persuade an audience throughout history. In Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Frederick Douglass’ “Address to the Massachusetts Anti-slavery society” speech, they articulate the injustices the black man has experienced over the years by exercising allusion and anaphora. King and Douglass, both civil rights activist, desire action from society; they seek true equality for their black brethren. King and Douglass use allusion to create a recollection in the minds of their audience in order to reinforce their intents. King states, “five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” referring to Abraham Lincoln.

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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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1041 Words | 5 Pages

He used other rhetorical devices to convince the audience that he and other African-American citizens deserve the same rights as their white counterparts. King used metaphors extensively, which made his words have a greater impact on the audience. He described the life of African-Americans as “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (“I Have a Dream”). This emphasized the difficulties that were experienced by African-Americans and how it hindered them from succeeding. By emphasizing this, King made his argument more persuasive because he captivated the audience.

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886 Words | 4 Pages

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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772 Words | 4 Pages

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King jr. stood on the steps of the Lincon memorial and passionately gave his famous speech. This speech is credited with being a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement and calls for a change in the way African Americans were treated in the United States. In his ardent speech about racial injustice toward African Americans, Dr. Martin Luther King jr. captivates his audience through his use of rhetorical comparison, allusions, and ethos to call people to action against Racial discrimination against African Americans. As it was used throughout his speech king utilizes repetition to voice his thoughts for example, when King states that he still has hope for the American dream, he uses the phrase “i have a dream” multiple times emphenziseing that he still has hope.” 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’”(73-74).

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630 Words | 3 Pages

In his emotionally charged speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. strongly urged and desperately pleaded with his audience through the use of allusion, metaphor, and repetition to champion for racial equality. King uses these methods to hopefully open the minds of his audience, and change their overall mindset on racial equality. Specifically, King intended to impact those listeners who continued to demonstrate strong beliefs not aligned with the equality of all men. Martin Luther King Jr. begins by using repetition to show how long the Negro has fought for freedom. MLK states “But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free.

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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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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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970 Words | 4 Pages

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 gave many reasons in his speech to make the audience excited and want to take action, 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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468 Words | 2 Pages

h King uses a repetition and parallelism in the phrase “I have a dream “ to help emphasize the importance of the message and the drive the narrative he is not speaking for just himself, but for

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466 Words | 2 Pages

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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1348 Words | 6 Pages

“I Have a Dream,” however, played a major step into changing it. It managed to inspire a generation of blacks to never give up and made thousands of white Americans bitterly ashamed of their actions, forging a new start for society. Even now, it continues to make generations of people, not just Americans, to give up their racist beliefs and advocate social colorblindness. Without King, America would be probably still heavily segregated. Other than the speech’s heartwarming and moving content, King’s effective structure along with the usage of all three rhetorical modes and certain rhetorical tropes and schemes has revealed the reason “I Have a Dream” as a masterpiece of rhetoric and it persuades hundreds of thousands of people support the blacks instead of treating them

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853 Words | 4 Pages

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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