I Had A Dream Speech Analysis

Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist minister and a Civil Rights activist, became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is widely known for his speech that took place on 28 August 1963, “I Have a Dream.” This speech aimed toward the entire nation. King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice and for them all to stand up together for their rights. In this speech, King uses emotional and logical appeal to gain the audience's support. He applied many rhetorical devices to his speech to connect with the audience’s emotions, and to logically support his arguments.

One hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to stop slavery, Martin Luther King, Jr. presented the “I Have a Dream” speech to thousands of people. The day Luther King, Jr.’s speech was the day of the March on Washington, which was for the support of the rights o colored citizens, and for the termination of segregation. King delivered this speech with a tone of hope and determination in order to convince colored people to fight for their rights and persuade the citizens that all lives matter and should be treated equally. He also delivered it in order to urge the rights these people deserved. Luther stood before all these people to express his thoughts on equality and the rights his people were stripped of. Kings’ audience consisted of the citizens of America that believed in equality for all races. In the “I Have a Dream” Speech, Martin Luther King, Jr used many metaphors, similes, analogies, Pathos, and Mythos to connect with his audience on a superior level and develop his tone.

"I Have A Dream" is a mesmerizing speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was delivered to the thousands of Americans on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. Aimed at the entire nation, King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice towards the mistreated African Americans and to stand up together for the rights afforded to African American under the Constitution. To further convey this purpose more effectively, King cleverly makes use of the rhetorical devices — ethos, pathos and logos — using figurative language such as metaphors and repetition as well as various other techniques e.g. organization, parallel construction and choice of title.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the man who wrote the speech entitled “I have a dream” and presented it to nearly 250,000 people on August 23, 1963. In that speech, MLK Jr. used several different types of figurative language/rhetorical devices in order to convey his message to the people on a deeper level. These devices include personification, allusion, symbolism, hyperbole, metaphor, simile, and anaphora.

An example from the speech is "I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts to reach them. " and "to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh...". Going into such gruesome detail to help appeal to people humane side. Not shying away from the atrocities that occur in the everyday life of his fellow Americans. Hoping to make the people take a step back and reflect wondering if this the world they want to live in today. The biggest rhetorical device Douglas uses though is logos. He portrays in two different ways on his speech. First by quoting the founding fathers. How the original leaders of our country preached for the equality of all men and not just white men. Reminding them that every man has his human rights of his own life and freedom. Since many arguments against this were that slaves were property and not "men'. Douglas then brought up

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than forty years ago, Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. This speech demanded racial justice towards the mistreated black community of America. The theme of the speech was that all humans were created equal and that this should be the case for the future of America. King's words proved to touch the hearts of millions of people and gave the nation a vocabulary to express what was happening to the black Americans. This did not happen by chance. Martin Luther King's speech was carefully constructed so it would have the most appropriate diction to propose his facts and ideas. His speech involved multiple different literary techniques which were very

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X use the same rhetorical strategies to enhance their message in their speeches. One device or strategy is repetition. In King’s speech he repeated the phrase “I have a

Martin Luther King Jr. was the man who wrote the speech entitled “I have a dream” and presented it to nearly 250,000 people on August 23, 1963. In that speech, MLK Jr. used several different types of figurative language/rhetorical devices in order to convey his message to the people on a deeper level. These devices include personification, allusion, symbolism, hyperbole, metaphor, simile, and anaphora.

Lastly, MLk uses many metaphors in his speech to make it effective. One example of this is, “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from

Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most famous civil rights activists in the history of the United States. He gave several important speeches and promoted non-violent protests. His most famous speech was “I Have A Dream”, around a quarter of a million patrons, black and white, attended this empowering speech at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The reason his speech was vastly successful in the movement against segregation and injustice was because of its repetitiveness.

An anaphora is the deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses sentences or paragraphs used to emphasize a point of make it catchy. The anaphora is used in the speech to get the audience to remember what he was about to say. The repetition of phrases such as “I Have a Dream,” “Let freedom ring,” and “One hundred years later,” started off some of the most important sentences in the speech. In this speech it was the biggest key for Dr. King when he was speaking because it added a tone that would rally together the crowd in person, and the crowd listening at their homes. One anaphora that was used during this speech was the phrase “one hundred years later.” King used this when referring to how life has changed for African Americans, since the Gettysburg Address a century before. The statement that followed this phrase was about the struggles African Americans still face to that day. The second anaphora King used was “Now is the time,” the words that followed discussed how African Americans felt they have been treated. The remarks King made contrasted from the dark times of segregation to the good times of justice and equality for everyone. Perhaps one of the most famous phrases “I Have a Dream” is also an anaphora. Dr. King used I Have A Dream when he stated what he wanted to see for blacks and whites in the future. The final anaphora King used in his speech was “Let freedom ring.” King used this at the end of his speech when he called for equality for everyone across the nation. The anaphora was a very effective method in his I Have a Dream speech considering the anaphora I Have a Dream is recognizable

African American Baptist minister and activist, Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech, addresses racism against Negros and demands equal rights and freedoms. King’s purpose is to motivate his audience to join him in fighting for what they deserve. He shifts from an urgent, demanding tone at the beginning of the speech to a more hopeful and patriotic tone towards the end. Throughout the speech, Dr. King appeals to the audience’s desire to better their futures by utilizing figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, and rhetorical devices such as repetition and parallelism.

On August 28th, 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr stood on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. He spoke passionately for 17 minutes on his views about human equality for African Americans at one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in history. King played a major role in ending the segregation for African Americans. His rhetorical language left an impact on America. Through his use of appeals like ethos, logos, pathos, and other rhetorical techniques. He influenced Americans to believe in the notion that all men are created equal.

In King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he imitates the use of metaphors to further appeal to the audience through

In Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, King makes use of an innumerable amount of rhetorical devices that augment the overall understanding and flow of the speech. King makes the audience feel an immense amount of emotion due to the outstanding use of pathos in his speech. King also generates a vast use of rhetorical devices including allusion, anaphora, and antithesis. The way that King conducted his speech adds to the comprehension and gives the effect that he wants to rise above the injustices of racism and segregation that so many people are subjected to on a daily basis.