Martin Luther King Jr. was a preacher, and a spokesperson for African Americans who were fighting for civil rights in the 1900’s. Martin’s “I Have a Dream” speech is probably the most recognizable speeches during the civil rights movement, or maybe even the most recognizable of all time. King’s speech was packed with literary devices, and figurative language. The grammar he used made his speech that much better. Let’s start simple, there are many similes. A simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one of another kind. Similes are used to make descriptions more emphatic and vivid. The first example is in the thirteenth paragraph. Dr. King said “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness …show more content…
Symbolism is a figure of speech where an object, person, or situation has another meaning other than its literal meaning. A big example of symbolism in this speech is when King spoke of Abraham Lincoln. This is symbolism because Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation; and the Proclamation symbolises freedom.
Personification is also included. Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something inhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. On page 4 King states “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of it’s creed.” The object being personified is The United States. You can tell because the United States is not alive, but it is given human-like qualities. When he says “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up”, the nation can't mentally or physically rise up.
The last example of figurative language is imagery. In “I Have a Dream” Martin Luther King Jr. is really good at putting an image in your head through his words. He expresses his feelings about the hard life of an African American. In one paragraph he said about how “...the negroes live on a lonely island of poverty in a vast ocean of material prosperity.” He also makes a very vivid image when he said “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of
In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson there are many examples of symbolism. Symbolism is a symbolic meaning attributed to natural objects or facts. Melinda in the book had her tree and that showed how she felt and the seasons changing showed how she was changing as a person. There was also the Maya Angelou poster she put up in the closet in school.
A simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing to another using the words like or as. The machines cut the trees in one big swipe like a shearer quickly cutting the fleece off a
Right near the beginning the author writes “Gusts of wind made bits of paper dance between the parked cars” which is an example of personification. This use of figurative language helps develop a gloomy mood and the fact neighborhood might be poor. Next the author writes “Father’s words like the distant thunder that now echoed through the streets of Harlem” which is an example of a simile. By comparing “Father’s” words to a distant thunder it makes the reader think his father is a big, strict, loud, and that the character and his father are probably in an argument. Finally, the author describes Lemon Brown’s voice as “high and brittle like twigs being broken” which is an example of a simile. By describing the voice as high and brittle it makes the reader think the voice may be from an older person who is potentially a woman. Walter Dean Myers makes great use of figurative language in the story Treasure of Lemon Brown.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
Personification is when an object receives human traits such as talking or screaming. Another example of a figurative language is located on page 226. “My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death.” That quote is an example of a simile and a metaphor. A simile is a comparison using like or as, while on the other hand, a metaphor is a comparison without using like or as.
He refers to the principles voiced by the nation's founders in his appeal for racial equality. This strategy was especially important in light of the fact that the government was concerned that the Civil Rights movement might discredit the United States abroad. The government was worried that if they gave African-Americans freedom, the United States would be seen as weak and have been persecuting innocent people. Hence, it was perceptive of King to imply in the speech that he is not undermining the United States, but asking the country to do justice to the principles that were asserted to be the backbone of U.S. politics and society. King states, for example, that his dream was "deeply rooted in the American dream," (King 2) and that he dreams of a day when Americans "will be able to sing with new meaning `My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing'" (King 3). King then uses the words of that song to distinguish the different areas of the country where he hoped the United States would soon "let freedom ring" (King 3) for all its citizens. King alludes to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as being a "promissory note" (King 1) to all citizens, which those at the march were claiming as their inheritance. The speech gains power from King's stressing that he was asking the United States to live up to its principles and thus to fulfill the greatness of its pronounced creed.
In “I Have a Dream”, by Dr.Martin Luther King Jr persuades us to want equal rights for African-Americans through peaceful resistance. I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King Jr is a very compelling speech to me because, he is using figurative language in order to show all the hopes and dreams he has for his people.
Symbolism itself is the use of a symbol (like an object or fact) to represent an idea or quality that is not what the symbol itself physically is. MLK Jr. used symbolism as a way to show the reader or listener to his speech his ideas or his point in a clearer manner. One example of symbolism he used would be, “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of justice.” In that quote MLK talks about a dark and desolate valley of segregation and the sunlit path of justice. The dark and desolate valley of segregation is referring to the U.S. at that point in time. People were separated based on their skin color and there was no social or legal justice for the people of dark colored skin. It was a horrible time to live in. When MLK Jr. talks
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. 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.
King makes good use of ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech. His confidence is the use of ethos which shows his knowledge and trustworthiness. He also used a reliable source, President Abraham Lincoln. In his speech, he states, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”(Jr). His use of President Lincoln shows that he respects and admires what he has done for America. He also uses a reminder the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in his speech. “This note was promised that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” (Jr). This shows that the government has failed to keep their promises to their citizens. His voice and sources make the audience rely on
Simile is a phrase that uses the words like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar. Simile and metaphor genuinely have an identical definition. Both of them compare two things that absolutely different. Simile is the explicit comparison of two things,