In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech called "I Have a Dream." The purpose of this speech was to change the way that African Americans are treated; Martin Luther King Jr. uses metaphors, repetition, and historical reference to enhance his purpose.
             The speech "I Have a Dream" has many metaphorical references. One quote in particular helps show the power and effectiveness of metaphors. "One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination"(1). This quote demonstrates one of his uses of metaphors. Martin Luther King Jr. is saying that even after African Americans were pronounced "free" one hundred years ago they are still experiencing persecution and prejudice for the color of their skin. This is valuable to his purpose because it gives people a new perspective on how people treat African Americans even after they declared that they were "free."
             Martin Luther King Jr. uses repetition throughout his speech. Repetition is a very powerful tool when writing; it puts extra emphasis on things you are trying to get across to your audience. A quote which shows this is "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "we hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream..."(2). In this case repetition is being used to get across the point that Martin Luther King Jr. hopes that the future of the African American will be much brighter (which is the purpose of the speech as a whole). By using repetition it forces the listener to pay attention to that part in the speech in particular due to the repetition of the sound. This helps his purpose because it projects the thinking of every African American at that time, giving the non-African American people a picture of what they dream to come in the
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