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Rhetorical Analysis Of I Have A Dream

Decent Essays
A Rhetorical Analysis of “I have a dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr “I have a dream” is a renowned speech given by the late Martin Luther King Jr at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 during the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”, in front of a large audience of about 250000 people. In his speech, King speaks in favor of the Negro rights and appeals for a change in the situation of racial discrimination and poverty that people of color faced back in those days. With his moving and impactful words, King speaks for the Negros who faced injustice and still lived difficult lives in the chains of poverty and discrimination despite the official liberation of America by Abraham Lincoln, hundreds of years ago. King mentions the Emancipation Proclamation at the beginning of his speech and paints a vivid picture in the listener’s mind of the hope and positive expectations in the negroes hearts after years of slavery, using the lines “ a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negroes”. By comparing “long night” to “captivity”, “daybreak” to “joy” and using the line “ seared in the flames of withering injustice”, he vividly shows the hope, suffering, and difficulties of the Negro people in a descriptive manner rather than simply stating that they felt hopeful. His use of metaphors and the detailed description forces his listeners to picture the situation in their minds and makes the first paragraph more insightful and impactful to the audience. He uses
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