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

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In the speech “I Have a Dream” (1963), Martin Luther King Jr. announces the ongoing problem of African Americans not being able to live freely without facing inequality. King defines his argument by asserting the credibility of the rights from the Constitution and
Declaration of Independence, by continuing to use rhetorical devices - repetition, and by connecting the community through his strong use of diction. King points out the issue in order to open the peoples’ eyes of the horrible treatment of African Americans. The author writes in a guiding and convincing tone for the emotional audience who wants to see a change in the rights of all Americans.
Martin Luther King Jr. takes off his speech by using ethos to establish credibility for the …show more content…

He indicates the “magnificent words” (4), of them “signing [this so called]
Martin 2 promissory note…every American was to fall heir” (4). King verbalizes the lies America has written and has not followed.
King connects to the audience by using diction throughout the speech. He brings the audience together by continuously using “us”, “we”, and “our”. MLK shows the needed unity between whites and blacks with “community…their destiny is tied up with our destiny” (9). He believes that this “situation can and will be changed” (14), and that we will all be one with the same rights of freedom, we will have a “brotherhood” (18), and most importantly that the upcoming generations “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” (20). King pushes at the point of equality and unity that is needed in the world.
MLK continues to make his speech flow by the use of meaningful rhetorical devices - repetition. When King talks about how the African American community has been lied to …show more content…

This reverts back to Abrahm Lincoln and how he freed the slaves. MLK starts to get the crowd cheering “Now is the time” (6), they clap. He keeps them going “we must” (8), they scream. Martin Luther King Jr. broadcasts “we can never be satisfied as long as” (13), the horrors of police brutality and the horrors of the wounded bodies. King demands us to think about and “go back to” (15), the hotspots of police brutality. Now, the famous “I Have a Dream” (16), is brought to the realization of the nation. In the future King “…dreams…the sins of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” (18). “With this faith, we will be able to” (26), be equal, be free, be together, be ONE. King finishes the speech with “Let[ing] freedom ring” (39), through the places where the inequality is unbearable to live in. MLK gives these problems a remembering title that keeps the speech moving.
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Throughout the speech King provides a productive choice of rhetorical devices and a strong collection of language, Martin Luther King Jr. ignites the crowds want for African
Americans equal rights and freedom. He had a fluent use of diction, the strong and

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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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In his revolutionary speech given to the people in Washington D.C in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. powerfully voices and effectively persuades his audience through the inclusion of repetition, influential imagery, and allusions to express the need for an end to segregation and the dream that everyone will one day be equal. MLK develops his argument through the use of various examples, told through facts but also pathos and other, more dramatic ways of storytelling. He speaks to express the need for an end to segregation and the dream that everyone will one day be equal in order to restore peace and fairness to all. MLK speaks to all, there isn’t anyone he doesn’t want to hear his message, young and old alike. Repetition was used by MLK successfully

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