Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream

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“I Have a Dream” was a speech in 1963 delivered by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington at the Abraham Lincon Memorial. Prior to the speech, he led a march through Washington where everyone sang “We shall overcome”. This grabbed the attention of all racists, and white people in general, all across the United States. King then proceeds to call for racial equality, while insisting on using non-violent protesting, due to them violating his Christian values. Because of this, he instead uses many persuasive devices to convince his audience to side with him. He uses written techniques to engage his audience, body language to emphasise his points, and audio codes to make it easier for his audience to follow what he is saying. Two …show more content…

One of the many ways he used metaphors was when King states “But one hundred years later, the life of the negro people is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” This is effective because he is comparing segregation and discrimination to chains used for slave labour, and having just mentioned how slavery was abolished one hundred years ago, he is stating that they are no better now as they were a century ago. Dr King also used repetition to emphasise his points and state his passion. The most blatant use of repetition is when King continuously says “I have a dream that…”, a phrase in which the speech was named after. One example of King using this, a line which some consider being his most powerful line of all time, was “I have a dream that one day, my four little children will live in a nation where they are not judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” By stating that he has a dream over and over again, he drills the idea into the heads of his listeners that he is working towards following his dreams, and it would mean a lot to him if they help him accomplish them. Another effect this has is it also inspires the negro population to win equality, by stating that in doing so, it would fulfil King’s dreams. King has a very strong speech, but it is all worth nothing if the audience doesn't understand him.

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