I Have A Dream Essay

I have watched Mandela present this speech several times, watching for what I believe are his strengths and weaknesses in making this a more effective argument. When Mandela speaks, there is hardly any inflection in his voice. However, simultaneously the tone of his voice does command respect from his audience. While Mandela speaks, he also uses no hand gesture, or gesture of any other form at all, nor makes any sustained eye contact at all. He holds his speech notes in his hand, and that is all, referring from notes and looking briefly at his audience, pausing and then looking back at his notes. One might say that this detracts from the effectiveness of his speech; however, this speech was hugely influential and is one that will go down in history. Due to the fact that the way it was presented has its faults it is obviously an amazing speech in other ways to create too much attention.

One way in which the speech has been so influential is the way is which he has used rhetoric for example the rule of 3, Nelson Mandela says Spurned, outlawed and isolated this use of 3 words emphasises the problem and makes people realise just how bad the situation is, its a way of manipulating the audience using words to make them see how bad things are. He uses this use of 3 more than once, he also uses it in a contrasting way by showing the people of South Africa how great they are and what a great nation they could live in. for example;

Reinforce humanitys belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility if the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

Nelson Mandela also thinks hard about his word choice in order to manipulate his audience for example using the words comrades and friends when he addresses people and the beginning of his speech. Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally", often with a military or left-wing political connotation. Addressing people in this friendly way shows the people of South Africa that he is their friend, that he does want to help them, and he is showing that he is no better than them he is in the same boat and they all have to help eachother to get through the tough situation.

Widely hailed as a masterpiece of rhetoric, Martin Luther King's speech resembles the style of a Baptist sermon, by performing his speech this way he manipulates the religious viewers and automatically gets their votes. Anaphora, the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of sentences, is a rhetorical tool employed throughout the speech. An example of anaphora is found early as King urges his audience to seize the moment: "Now is the time..." is repeated four times in the sixth paragraph. The most widely cited example of anaphora is found in the often quoted phrase "I have a dream..." which is repeated eight times as King paints a picture of an integrated and unified America for his audience. Other occasions when King used anaphora include "One hundred years later," "We can never be satisfied," "With this faith," and "Let freedom ring."