The Use of Rhetorical Devices in I Have a Dream Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On August 28, 1963 Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. gave the monumental I Have a Dream speech. A single hundred years earlier, the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in 1863 freeing all the slaves. Two years later the Civil War ended in 1865 unfortunately, the racism that started the war and triggered such anger towards the Emancipation Proclamation did not end. The early 1960s was a really tough time full of hatred, racism, and confusion. All sorts of discriminatory laws restricted where African Americans could sit, eat, drink, and even go to the restroom. On that momentous day in August, hundreds of African Americans had gathered for a march on Washington DC. Marches on Washington are fairly frequent now, but in 1963 they have been virtually unheard of. In front of the Lincoln Memorial, for one of the first occasions in history, speeches have been offered, prayers had been said, and songs have been sung to rally the marchers collectively in the lead to of freedom and harmony for blacks, and to draw attention to the problems at hand and demand a resolution.

Dr. King was a Baptist minister from Alabama who had made numerous speeches as element of the civil rights movement, both in his church and other venues. On August 28, 1963 he was 16th on the system, the seventh out of the nine speakers to speak that day. The listeners have been tired and sweltering in the humid heat of the late summer time in Washington. Some of Dr. King’s earlier speeches had contained the “I have a dream” statement, but none of them had been really impactful. Advisors had warned him not to use that phrase again. King wrote his speech with out using the phrase at all, but as he neared the end of the speech, he set his written text aside and began to tell individuals about his dream. His speech went down in history as 1 of the greatest speeches of all time. Through his rhetoric, which includes allusion, analogy, and repetition, Dr. King presented his beliefs that all guys are produced equal and are inherently endowed with certain unalienable rights, and shared his dream of a society exactly where men and women of all races could reside collectively in harmony, creating a powerful argument for the rights of African Americans.

One particular of the really initial rhetorical devices King uses is allusion. He starts his second sentence with “Five score years ago, a wonderful American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand right now.…” By using this statement, Dr. King alludes to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, as a result arousing a sense of patriotism in his listeners. The use of that opening line also establishes a normal of expectation for the rest of his speech. By using the exact same style of opening as did the Gettysburg address he sets a comparison among that historic speech and his own, immediately setting the expectation for his audience that King’s speech will be as strong as Lincoln’s. The allusion to that speech also stirs the memory of the line in the Gettysburg Address “a government of the men and women, by the individuals, and for the individuals,” which concept he expounds on in the content of his speech. One particular final effect that opening two-word phrase “five score” had was the exact same as the influence Lincoln’s use of the phrase had in 1863. It alluded to the grandiose language of the Bible, and as a result utilized some of the Bible’s ethos to add energy their speeches. Each Lincoln’s and King’s audiences had a majority of Christians. By alluding to the Bible, King utilized the very same tactic as Lincoln to open his listeners’ ears and hearts, therefore permitting his words to penetrate their innermost feelings, adding an unmatchable force to his words that would give his audience the enthusiasm and the drive for continuing the civil rights movement and enduring the resulting hardships ahead.

Dr. King once more employs allusion later in his speech. He says, “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” In this sentence, he alludes to the atonement when Christ drank from the bitter cup. Even so, Dr. King right here reverses the order of the words and says “cup of bitterness”. This achieves two objectives. Very first, it compares the civil rights movement to the atonement. As he expounds in the exact same paragraph, he wanted the African Americans to withstand all the trials and afflictions thrown at them with soul force as an alternative of physical force and primarily turn the other cheek. That was specifically what Christ did when he was crucified—he drank the bitter cup and withstood his hardships without having reacting violently. The second accomplishment of that allusion was to show the gravity of the situation if the African Americans retaliated and became hateful. Christ drank from the bitter cup. If the blacks drank from the cup of bitterness, they would be partaking of the same metaphorical poison drunk by Judas and the others who killed Christ. In that one phrase, Dr. King warned his audience of the attainable consequences of letting animosity into their hearts, all by means of the power of allusion. This played a excellent function in creating the civil rights movement what it was—civil. The blacks that have been part of that movement did not retaliate or react violently. They civilly did what was right, regardless of persecution, just as Christ did.

The rhetorical device of analogy is employed next. Dr. King compares the march on Washington to cashing a check for the inalienable rights promised to all guys in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. He says that America has defaulted on that verify, and therefore, that the “bank of justice” is bankrupt. In the 1960s, absolutely everyone wrote checks. Every person dealt with bankers and understood the concept of cashing in a verify. By making use of this analogy, King did two issues. First, he produced a basic comparison that absolutely everyone could comprehend, so that the concept of the march would be not just an abstract concept, but alternatively, an action with a goal. He gave their march a sense of solidarity and tangible meaning. Second, via this straightforward comparison, he utilised the analogy to place the situation in terms so uncomplicated as to make the actions of the United States government sound completely ridiculous. The American government would default on a verify, and declare bankruptcy? The United States was formed on the notion of balance in between liberty and justice! No 1 can declare bankruptcy on anything innate to them, inherently in their nature.

At the extremely finish of his speech, Reverend King again utilizes analogies. He proclaims, “With this faith, we will be in a position to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope…we will be capable to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood…” The first analogy utilised here compares despair to a mountain, and hope to a stone that is reduce away from that mountain. It is in that initial analogy that King totally connects with his audience. In that analogy, he recognizes the circumstance for what it is. He sees what the African Americans are going by means of and what they are feeling—a mountain of despair. In that analogy he shows them that he knows and is quite familiar with the crushing, agonizing, overwhelming discomfort of anguish and hopelessness. But then he shows the audience that there is hope and that it can be gained by means of the trials they are facing. He says that hope is a stone that can be cut out of the mountain of despair—misery and hopelessness, through Christ, can lead to hopefulness and sooner or later, happiness.

The second analogy mentioned says that, “we will be capable to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a stunning symphony of brotherhood.” Right here Dr. King recognizes that the country is not at its ideal. The jangling discords represent the conflict amongst the blacks and whites—they clash continuously and the contention outcomes in a nationwide dilemma exactly where both races hate every other. An orchestra requirements all of the instrumentalists to play in harmony—if they all attempt to outplay each and every other by seeing who can play his instrument the loudest, the orchestra does not sound excellent at all. Dr. King resolves the metaphor by saying that it will be achievable to take that inharmonic jangling and transform it into a gorgeous symphony. If all of the instrumentalists play in harmony and balance, the orchestra will sound stunning if everybody in the United States treats every single other with kindness and respect, the people of the nation will come to have a feeling of brotherhood and the country will function correctly. As shown, not only does the analogy make the main concept simpler to comprehend, it connects imagery with the concept. That tends to make the concept considerably more tangible and meaningful to the individuals fighting for it. Dr. King effectively utilized analogies to aid each member of his audience see what they were striving for, and thus press forward with much much more unanimity and gusto.

One particular of the most essential rhetorical devices Dr. King employed was repetition. Despite the fact that it is utilised in several areas, it is most frequently remembered at the very end of the speech when Dr. King tells his audience about his dream. He shouts, “I have a dream” then expounds on what that dream is—whether it be for the nation to rise up to its creed that “all men are designed equal”, or that “little black boys and black girls will be capable to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” In amongst every of those statements Dr. King declares “I have a dream nowadays.” That repetition drives home Dr. King’s argument like absolutely nothing else could. In saying he has a dream, he sheds light on the reality that all the African Americans have ever been able to do in America is dream of a far better life. Nonetheless, when King says, “I have a dream these days,” what he truly is saying is that he has a dream nowadays that will be a reality tomorrow. It will not be a dream forever. By repeating that phrase, “I have a dream nowadays,” he shows that there is hope for the future, and that hope is the very same hope held by each other African American and warrior in the civil rights movement, and that that hope has the possible to not just be a hope forever—if the individuals function challenging, that hope can become actual situations.

By means of his rhetoric, Dr. King developed an outstanding speech and argument. Via allusion, analogy, and repetition, among other rhetorical devices, he successfully proved to his audience and to African Americans all through the United States that hope exists. That hope gave them courage, and that courage made it achievable for them to win the civil rights movement, gaining rights to education, suffrage, and all round equal treatment. His speech had an even broader effect than that although.