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Rhetorical Devices In MLK Speech

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MLK Speech Devices
In Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech, many rhetorical devices are used to convey the message that he is trying to get across. Two of these devices are symbolism and repetition. Symbolism is used extensively throughout the speech. One example of this is in the line “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’.” In this sentence, Martin Luther King Junior is using a “check” to represent the rights of the African-American people. He says that this is a bad check. This means that the rights that were promised to all American citizens were given to the African-American people but they were incomplete or “bad”.
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