A Comparison of Dr. King's I Have a Dream Speech and Mandela's Glory and Hope Speech

I Have a Dream and Glory and Hope were two speeches given, respectively, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela at times of great need; at times when ignorance and racially-based hubris intertwined themselves in the sparse gaps of human understanding. At first glance, the facets of humanity and blanket tranquillity seem to be in natural accord. Philosophers have struggled with the reason behind the absolute absence of peace as everybody, by definitions both classical and modern, longs for peace; conflict arrives from the disagreement on how to obtain it. The speeches I Have a Dream are similar both linguistically and structurally in that both speakers apply strong emotional appeal to support their propositions of freedom, justice, and social equality.

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before more than 200,000 Americans on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. provoked the original notions of American ideals with his cardinal I Have a Dream speech. Though his prompting egalitarian reasoning, King pushed the definition and perception of human rights to then impractical limits in a most diplomatic and affable manner. Who would suppose that 1994, nearly thirty years later, the dispute of racial equivalence would be addressed by Nelson Mandela at his swearing-in ceremony in the face of the South African apartheid. The belief of both men, Mandela and King, can be summarised in a mantra proposed within both speeches: let freedom ring.

Each speech demonstrate a unique way of articulating what they want to express while maintaining separate and distinct choices of what literary techniques are effective and which are not. The most prevalent rhetorical device within I Have a Dream is anaphora, the repetition of a seq...

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...not be present. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela share the ability to speak eloquently and with pertinence simultaneously; this ability is demonstrated in their speeches and that is why they still hold a level of modern relevance. Kate Chopin eloquently wrote, “I like to cherish the delusion that he has spoken to no one else so directly, so intimately as he does to me” Nelson Mandela spoke, “There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”

Works Cited

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “I Have a Dream.” March on Washington. Lincoln Memorial: Washington. 28 August 1963. Address.

Mandela, Nelson “Glory & Hope.” Capetown. 9 May 1994. Address.

Mandela, Nelson “In His Own Words” New York, NY: Little, Brown and, 2003. Print.