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The I Have A Dream Speech

Decent Essays

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the "I Have a Dream" Speech on Aug. 28, 1963 at the
Lincoln Memorial. The speech was given prior to the March on Washington, a peaceful protest against inequality. In his speech, King aims to influence his audience to fight for the change from a segregated nation to a place of freedom for all. Throughout the speech, Americans are refreshed with what their society was supposed to be, rather than how it was currently. King utilizes literary devices to highlight his notion that racial equality is essential for people to peacefully coexist, and how racism negatively affects the lives of African­Americans.
In the first part of his speech, King, cleverly paints a picture of the plight of the African Americans and thoroughly describes their condition to create a personal experience for the white and black audience. For example, in the start of the essay, King says that the life of the blacks is “crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” and that the blacks are living on a “lonely island of poverty” in the midst of a “vast ocean of material prosperity.” This first makes the whites realize how the blacks are in a terrible plight and make them dislike their actions while striking deep into the hearts of blacks as this clearly depicts their situation. Further on, King continues to emphasize this by continuing to list examples of the African American’s problems, which continues to strike them as they are stirred by

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