Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Speech

“I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King used four simple words to reveal the most commonly sincere desires of those racially oppressed people in America in his notable speech during the era of civil rights movement. In the meantime, it also roused rages of American racists. King’s non-violent strategy for gaining social and economical justice for African American was effective and racial discrimination has been reduced; however, inequality still exists among different races in the United States after 50 years. King’s defective success in the civil rights movement has aroused some questions. What stylistics did Martin Luther King use that make his non-violent strategy work in inspiring people that equal rights should be granted to all

Also, not only African Americans are vulnerable group, but also are other races, like Asians, fighting for injustice in this so called free land. The effectiveness of words used in King’s speech can be reflected through analysis of his rhetorical tactics. In fact, King’s non-violent ideology is bonded to his religion. Some religious thoughts can be noted in his speech. For example, he refers “God” four times in “I Have A Dream,” he thinks all Americans are God’s children regardless their skin colors. On the one hand, he believes that all races in the United States should share human rights equally with American citizens. On the other hand, he condemns some unequal behaviors happened in a democratic country. The academic debate surrounding my chosen focus is whether language stylistics is significant in persuading people by integrating religious cultures. Therefore, the academic debate surrounding my topic will intersect in the following fields, stylistics, linguistics, American History, religious cultures and politics. Besides, I will also find some scholarly secondary sources in relation to rhetorical features to support my claim that Martin Luther King’s speech contains violent elements in its non-violent rhetoric for the purposes of persuading his adherents. The contentious issues surrounding my topic are concentrated on debate about violent images in Martin Luther King’s non-violent rhetoric in the United States. Research has been conducted on orator’s language techniques and effects of King’s speech. Moreover, King syntactic figures of speech and semantic figures of speech, such as simile, metaphor, personification, antithesis and parallelism, which make his speech more dynamic and convincing. Researchers disagree on how King’s rhetorical strategies are regarded as non-violence. Professor Jonathan Rieder argues in a video called “Was MLK’s ‘ I Have a Dream’ Speech