Subjects:
Luther King and 200,000 followers marched on Washington, DC in August of 1963,
their goal was racial equality and an equal opportunity to pursue the American
dream. King did more than anyone to keep this dream alive, but also to point his
followers to it in a peaceful though persistent way. During King?s speech he
used several speech strategies to enhance his message and to emphasize key
details. The different rhetorical devices, allusions to historic documents, and
metaphors brought about the emotions that king was trying to arouse in his
listeners. This provoked his listeners into wanting equality and true freedom.
The speech?s title probably was probably taken from King?s usage of the
anaphora ?I have a dream,? which is present throughout the speech. The use of
this anaphora brought about emotion in his audience and gave them hope. This
phrase is present at the beginning of paragraphs 12 and 13; this statement was
probably spoken with great prominence since it gave the observers the desire to
change ?today? instead of continuing to be discriminated against. Martin Luther
King?s speech could have very well been titled something else bu
. . .
to is really the rights that were guaranteed to all men, but as of yet he feels
he has not received. He asked no more than an
equal share in those principles, and no less. t because of his
use of anaphora which strongly emphasized these words it earned itself the title
?I Have a Dream. These allusions were probably geared more
towards the white listeners than towards the black because it provided the
textual evidence from past documents which stated that ?all men were created
equal and all people should have inalienable rights of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. One hundred years later, the Negro is still
languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his
own land. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in
the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. ? But we refuse to believe that the bank of
justice is bankrupt.
The foundational principles of our country apply equally to Americans of all
races, a fact King tried to make clear in this address. The
white people would be able to say black people were starting a violent protest
and needed to be stopped; this would cause retaliation and ?physical violence.
?When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every
hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day
when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of
the old Negro spiritual, ?Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are
free at last!?? This whole last paragraph is a great example of parallelism. One hundred years
later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast
ocean of material prosperity. While some of his words may cause
us to foresee the violation on private property rights since actualized by
others, in the best-known portion of this speech -- his dreams-- he evokes no
image that is at all disharmonious with the principles on which America was
founded. ? King also makes a few allusions to the Bible; ?Let us not
seek to satisfy thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and
hate,? is the first allusion the Bible in his speech. Instead of honoring this
sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come
back marked ?insufficient funds.
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