I Have A Dream Essay

I Have a Dream

August 28, 1963 a powerful speech: I Have A Dream was delivered to over 200,000 people at the Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C. by, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Not only a highly respected activist and heroic leader for civil rights, he was a well educated and phenomenal speaker. King captivated his audiences by using various strategies such as, metaphors, repetition, historical and spiritual allusions, and word choice. Some of these techniques will be explained here.

Metaphorically, Kings speech consists of a system that effectively grabs the attention of African-Americans which are effected by and relate to a hindrance at hand. So we have come to cash this check,(540). This is a clever metaphor describing that America still owes what was promised in the singing of the Emancipation Proclamation one-hundred years earlier. For one-hundred years, the negro community have been holding on to a promise that has been suspended far above their reach and it is now time for redemption. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice,(540). This is referring to his people, suffering from the unfair and ignorant acts of the justice system. Because of misuse and neglect by the justice system, negros have been sinking and drowning in what was supposed to be the solid ground that the justice system failed to honor in the scheme of equality. Battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the wind of police brutality,(541). Mentally, African-americans have been mistreated, persecuted for being negro. Segregation has left them feeling as if they have been through a terrible storm. Police brutality left them stumbling in a constant attack to their society. Hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.(542). This metaphor paints a remarkably picturesque vision that subsequently gives a solid sense of hope. King compares The mountain of despair to feeling hopeless, an exasperating emotion that has been piled up over time by his people as a whole. Now negros should finally obliterate this wall, destroy this mountain, raze this obstruction, but salvage a recollection of this discouraging impediment and bring fourth an unyielding essence that is hope. He cleverly compares, Mississippi, a desert state and Sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression,(542). Kings comparison to the state is asphyxiating in the sense of how discrimination and inequality have such a dominating affect on the negro community. His metaphors produced a catchy rhythm in the way he spoke as well as the way he used quite often, repetition.

I Have a Dream, (542). King repetitively uses this statement over and over. The recurrent use of this statement is the foundation of methodical endeavors in how his speech is shaped. The repetition of this statement is a strategy used to get a point across clear, and easily understood. King introduces each argument in a way, such that many people comprehend without difficulty, a structure that is comforting even though it is trailed by a harsh reality. The words, I Have a Dream,(542). produce a reassuring impression for the dissatisfaction he feels toward the sufferance him and his fellow negros have endured. Instead of opening each argument exhibiting antagonism and frustration, King transforms the function of each statement by simply adding layer after layer of tranquil words that change the way the statement might have been indignantly taken. Rather than lead his audience into bitter understanding and resentment, King earnestly instills hope with his argument in a persuasive manner with words that many relate to, gentle, optimistic words that one would commonly give interest to when perceived. Kings statement, I Have a Dream,(542). Not only made progressively clear, a recurring vision of hope, but a reason for all negros to stand up for what they believe in.

Works Cited

King, Jr., Martin Luther. I Have a Dream. Models for writers: Short Essays for Composition,

Tenth Edition. Ed. Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 539-542. Print.

Weigel