Rhetorical Devices In Martin Luther King's Speech

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Speeches are something that are either excellent because of the way the spokesman or woman presents the speech, or the way emotions are influenced by it. Speeches are given every day, but many don’t change anything, nonetheless some are so inspirational that people want to do everything for that matter. The two most inspiring speeches ever presented, were easily, “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King junior, and Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” speech. They were both against racism which back then was a big thing. Two devices used by Martin Luther king are metaphors and repetition. Metaphors are saying that two things are the same that aren’t even related to each other. By using metaphors people can infer that someone or something is acting like an …show more content…

He repeats “a hundred years later” to infer that the discrimination hasn’t only been recent, but has occurred for a century. People were reminded that this should have stopped a hundred years ago. Kevin Rudd’s sorry speech is a whole other speech. It uses repetition and metaphors in a completely different way to Martin Luther King. The best use of repetition by Kevin Rudd is, “We say sorry”. He said this, to infer that the whole government was apologising for the disgusting behaviour that they displayed. By repeating this, the saying or sentence gets stuck in the audience’s mind like super glue and makes it a mind-blowing speech. His metaphor “turning a new page” makes us think that these bad things are behind them and the ending of the story will be a happy one. The speeches both include similar text structures of repetition and metaphors, with reasonings to either fix the dilemma, or solve it properly. Both speeches are known as the best speeches ever given, but overall, the best speech ever spoken is and was…... Martin Luther King’s I have a dream! WINNER! The reason for this, is there was more emotive metaphors and repetition, forcing the audience to believe his opinion. By doing this all members of the audience felt that this problem needed urgent

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