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

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In an essay, identify one of Dr. King’s main claims in the text of his “I Have a Dream” speech, analyzing how he develops his ideas and evaluating the effectiveness of his argument. Martin Luther King JR fought for everybody’s rights. He believed in harmony amongst us all. He wanted to have an unimaginable effect on people. He makes some very reasonable and sagacious points in his speech, that all come down to one thing; equality. King talks about how the time is now, how nobody has time to just stay still and cool off. He reinforces the idea of how long they have waited to gain rights, to gain true freedom. The American Dream could all be changed, if we all would work together. All king wanted for people to see was how foolish we were all acting towards eachother, and how foolish it would be for us to wait for things to get better. You cannot just have hope, you have to act on it. One of his major claims in his speech consists of him talking about the time is now. He claims that the no time to engage in cooling off, or to wait until things …show more content…

King is saying if people don’t wake up and realize that the time is now to make a change, then everybody will be affected and everybody will go down as a nation. It would go against the “American Dream” which is the belief that everybody, no matter what class they were born into or where they were born can keep their own version of success in society which upward mobility is possible for everybody in this country. He says that it would go against the idea of the American dream of freedom and racial harmony that is was supposed to be 200 years ago. King is saying that 1963 is not an end, but a beginning for change and they will not stop enforcing this until there is a invigorating autumn of freedom and

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Being an appeal to pathos, King uses descriptors to show the emotions he is having. King is saying enough is enough the South has been a state nothing getting done and it should change. He says he loves the South, but certain people have come in and “bogged down” the area with agendas that do not flesh well with the rest of the South. He is tired of speakers and talkers that do not follow up their speeches with action or even conversations. King just wants Southerners to start having conversations and working together to resolve issues instead of being told and forced to

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King’s letter is full of powerful and motivating quotes. King explained the topic of freedom and how it was difficult for the African Americans to achieve, he stated: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (68). The African Americans, specifically the leaders, went through extremely tough and painful experiences. According to King, for the African Americans to achieve freedom they had to fight for it, because the oppressors refused to give freedom to their victims. King knew this because of the many different painful experiences him and the other leaders experienced to receive their

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King stated that the black community has waited long enough. “We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights” (King 5). These are rights that everyone should have yet people had been neglected of them just because of their skin color. Other countries were making progress while they were stuck on an unnecessary issue. King uses a great analogy to explain this “The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (King 6).

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King wants the audience to remember that segregation is not okay and that in order for things to be different something “ can and will be changed.” King uses repetition to make his audience comprehend and listen to what he has to say. King instructs the audience to “go back” to the states and “go back” to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, as an example to spark their memory of our history and encourage them to take action. King also uses phrases such as “we can never be satisfied” and “we refuse to believe '' to show how America has wronged its people and must keep its promises in order for trust to be established. King repeated the phrase “now is the time” to show what he thinks America should be built on.

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King is calling on everyone to help those in need. African Americans have a right to be tired of waiting for change. He uses emotion to make people think about what they are doing, if they

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In a sense, they give up their individualistic thinking and think as a group. King questions the kind of people that voted for these laws and if they were intended to be for the good of the people. In the social contract, the government is legitimate if consented by the people. In this case, the government would serve to protect but King questions if the laws were democratically elected and states that because African Americans weren’t able to vote for such a government, they have no obligation to obey such

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He introduces his essay by stating, “Five score years ago, a great American… signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” (MLK pg 1) He goes on to say, “One hundred years later, the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by…segregation.” (pg 1) King explains how justice has not been served to African Americans, even after the Emancipation Proclamation. He’s conveying the importance of fulfilling these promises that have yet to be seen.

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In this letter, it demonstrates how King was willing to fight for the rights of the black community. He wanted his people to have the same treatment that any other citizen would have ,yet that is the exact opposite that the black people were getting. For instance, he was making a statement when peacefully protesting for their rights. Although some people were taking it the wrong way ,but to make matters clear it is time for the black people to go on a strike. In the letter, it states, “ Nonviolent direct action fix to create such a crisis and Foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.

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This quote shows King’s direct response to the clergymen telling him and his fellow protesters that they need to delay their civil rights movement because it just isn’t the best time. He warns the ministers that if this movement is put off for too long, there will be a time when violent protests and riots will break out because there is a drastic need for change in a broken society such as the one that was present at the

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