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.
On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King made his famous “I Have a dream” speech on the Lincoln Memorial after the March on Washington. He delivered this speech to millions of people blacks and whites. This is one of the greatest speeches because it has many elements like pathos, logos, ethos, repetition, assonance, and consonance.
King, Martin Luther Jr. “I Have a Dream.” Lincoln Memorial, Washington, District of Columbia. 28 August 1963. Public address.
Whenever Martin Luther King Junior, began to speak, he held everybody’s attention. This was the case in 1963 during the pinnacle of the Civil Rights Movement when Martin gave his career defining speech “I Have a Dream”. Over a quarter million people attended the protest, and the crowd varied in color as well as cause. A crowd of this size would certainly frighten most people; but Martin was not the type of man to be phased easily. Martin grew up on the racist streets of Atlanta, Georgia and faced much adversity in his life. Not even thirty-five Martin would give a speech that would shake an embroiled nation to its core. Martin Luther King Junior gave a speech to beautifully wove together the three appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos into one
In the light of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, which happened on the same exact day as this speech that year, President Barrack Obama connected his speech closely to Martin’s, both in the importance of unification and very similar in language and structure. Our president takes us to the past, telling us that freedom was closer of being taken rather than given. He uses logos to re...
King, Martin Luther, Jr. "I Have a Dream...” Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC. 28 Aug. 1963.
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than two score years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. 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 all 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.
The speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. to the African Americans and to the white Americans in the August of 1963 was undoubtedly a motivator for many. It is no wonder why a vast majority of people living in the United States can recite words from the speech of a now deceased man. Because his language and diction spoke to all believers in freedom as well as to freedom's adversaries, his message was universal and had a meaning to all who heard it. This continues today. Freedom and equality are something to be attained, for all of us.
Throughout the speech Martin Luther King Jr is explaining the pain and suffering the Negro’s /‘Black’ citizens and slaves had to go through every day. Martin’s purpose and message of the
In his speech, “I Have a Dream,” delivered on August 28, 1963 at Abraham Lincoln’s memorial in Washington, D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explores the rights that African American’s are granted by the U.S. Constitution. King believes that those rights are not equal to the rights that white men and women have. King describes a world that is different than the world where he lives. A world that he desires his family to grow up in and the vision that he sees America becoming. Though all Americans were ostensibly granted unalienable rights, King uses rich figurative language to argue that African Americans are still waiting to enjoy the same privileges afforded to others.
King, Jr., Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream.” Speech. 28 Aug. 1963. Ripples of Hope. Basic
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most famous "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered to 250,000 civil rights supporters during the march on Washington DC in August 1963, it is credited with mobilizing supporters and prompting the 1964 civil rights act. The italicised quote that Houston et al. have chosen suggests the theme of the thesis, but because the quote has been taken from one of the most powerful and globally significant speeches in history and is from the most famous paragraph in that speech, it actually does so much more. The authors chose - “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self–evident, that all men are created equal’.”. This quote communicates their articles theme and it also communicates their ideology. By using this quote the authors align themselves with it and their research with the concepts and values it portrays. However, the authors are not only aligning themselves with the quote, they are also aligning themselves and their ethos with the Man, his ethos and the whole speech he made that day. This is because the speech is so famous and the paragraph so well known that readers can be expected to absorb so much more from the epigraph than just the thoughts, feelings and sense of theme delivered by the quote itself. When Martin Luther King,
Speeches are a method of persuading people to do something. For Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, their speeches were to bring equality for the people of color. However, their approaches are different. Consequently, the effects may be different. An example of their contrasting differences is a speech from each, King’s “I Have a Dream” and X’s “The Black Revolution”. Their speeches used pathos, a central metaphor, and a warning, but was presented differently.
Bates, Claire. "Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech: What does it tell us about him?." BBC. BBC History, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Malcolm X once said, “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” (X, Prospects for Freedom in 1965, chapter 12) Various African American leaders have rallied up protesters and have recited speeches, like Malcolm X’s “Prospects for Freedom”; yet, none seem to compare to King’s “I Have a Dream.” The speech has been heard all around the world, and is by far one of the most well known. Accordingly, “I Have a Dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the most enthralling; moreover, he persuades America that inequality should have never existed, and everyone should have freedom adorning them, that was earned peacefully. This idea is exhibited by the speech’s distinguished evidences: the African
Barack Obama has made no secret that over the past three decades Nelson Mandela has been the greatest influence in his life. Coming from an African ancestry, Obama drew inspiration from Mandela’s life and influenced Obama to take himself upon a journey of self-discovery and find his own voice (Obama, 2004). The repercussions of Mandela’s inspirational work caused Obama to become a part of an anti-apartheid divestment movement in college and to shift to focusing on law and politics (Epstein, 2013). Now that Barack Obama has become President of the United States of America, he has consistently quoted Mandela in all his keynote speeches speaking of freedom and equality and his actions and words are inspired by the desire to emulate Mandela’s powerful actions and movements and the examples that he set, in the 21st century (Killough, 2013). Even within the tribute to Mandela, Obama (2013) says “You can make his life’s work your own…It stirred something ...