Martin Luther King I Have A Dream Rhetorical Devices

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.

"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.

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

In 1963, minister and rights activist, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in front of Lincoln memorial to bring awareness to the unfairness of injustice for black people. King's speech was an effort to try and mandate the coming together of the black and white race and finally have the equality between us all be put into force for a free nation. As the speech left King’s mouth and entered 250,000 citizens ears, it left them to think about what point he was trying to make because he uses pathos, logos, and ethos.

In a period of time where few were willing to listen, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood proudly, gathered and held the attention of over 200,000 people. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was very effective and motivational for African Americans in 1963. Many factors affected Kings’ speech in a very positive manner; the great emotion behind the words, delivering the speech on the steps of the memorial of the President who defeated slavery. And not only was this message beautifully written for the hope of African Americans, but the underlying message for white people, revolution and peace. To stimulate emotion from both parties of his listeners, King used a selection of rhetorical devices such as allusions to historical

Early in his speech, he establishes the connection of the Negro people to American society, stating that “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” Essentially, society has set them up for failure, intentionally creating an environment in which it is impossible to succeed in. Much like the concept of “forty acres a mule,” Negros were deliberately placed in a position of guaranteed failure. When the slaves were freed, they were promised forty acres of land and a mule, but were given no tools to harvest the land. They requested help from other famers, but were swindled out of their land or given land which was implantable, effectively consigning them into being in the same position as they were when they were enslaved. However, King transitions away from a feeling of hopelessness to one of optimism, claiming that although society wants the Negros to feel oppressed, they refuse to believe that “there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of the nation.” They are aware that opportunity and liberty are not things of limited quantity, therefore they should be offered to everyone. The “bank of opportunity” is impossible to go bankrupt because there are unlimited funds, waiting to be distributed out to everyone. The metaphors King connects to the current

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech was an astonishing display of language that persuaded the American nation to dissolve the barrier that stood between equality for all in our great nation. The true beauty in Dr. King’s speech rests in his ability to persuade the audience at the Lincoln Memorial, as well as, the nation to believe that it is a necessity to rid the exigence of segregation. Through the usage of metaphors that engage the reader, King uses language as an instrument to control the audience’s emotions and fuel their ideas that they can be the ones to make the change to propel our nation from one mediocrity to greatness. In his speech, King uses an eloquent blend between symbols and emotions through metaphors to persuade the audience that there is no true constraint that can hold them from achieving their goal and use the historical March on Washington as the solution to this exigence that failed to wither away one hundred years ago when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

I find Dr. King’s metaphor of uncashed checks made the comparison very effective because he wanted the federal government to be forced into giving full equality to the colored people. Yes, they were “technically” given equality under the law but the government came up with so many different ways of going around it.

He questions the audience about society and what they have done for their community. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality; we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities; we cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one; we can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity,” (King). King knows how to bring the people into the speech to involve every single person standing before him and make them feel like they are apart of the speech. He mentions what has been taken away from them which creates anger within the crowd. King’s ability to appeal to the audience through emotion affected society for decades after and changed the sense of pride the African Americans had.

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.

King’s speech focused on a message of the equality that every person should have and that no one should be treated as a lesser person. Dr. King wants to get rid of segregation and hate towards blacks. He wanted his words to influence all the people that are racist against blacks to make them believe that blacks should also have the same rights that whites do. Dr. King appealed to his audience’s emotions by using quotes from the bible and important documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Dr. King called his listeners to take action and do something about the racism.

On August 28th 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream” speech which was addressed to not only the 200,000 white and black Americans but people all around the world. The “I Have A Dream” speech has been considered one of the most greatest and powerful speeches in history. Why was it given? Simply to rectify that all me were created equal despite their race or color. In this Analysis I will be explaining some literary terms he used as strategies in his speech, and also explain how Dr. King used two rhetorical patterns to help him support his argument, those two patters are Ethos, & Pathos.

On August 28th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his magnum opus “I Have a Dream” speech to a crowd of over 250,000 civil rights activists in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Even though the monologue clocks in at just over fifteen minutes in length, Dr. King’s words have been cemented as the catalyst for civil rights reform through his strategic implementation of rhetorical devices. Making a monumental impact in such a short amount of time requires careful selection of words and phrases that will enforce his thesis while remaining concise. While King captures his audience and empowers them through a combination of ethos, logos and pathos, this paper will focus on five fundamental figures of speech he implements throughout which ultimately give his rhetoric a more influential, enduring effect.

Dr. Martin Luther King is often heralded as one of the greatest and most influential leaders of the civil rights movement. Some may say, that his legacy is best remembered through his moving, inspiring and fiery speeches. In his, “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. Martin Luther King uses metaphor, allusion and repetition to motivate America to make a change in the nation's segregation laws, and to give the Negro equal rights.