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

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

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

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