Analyse the Effectiveness of Methods Used in Martin Luther King's "I Had a Dream" Speech

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Analyse the Effectiveness of methods used in Martin Luther Kings “I had a dream” speech. In the 1960’s black people where treated badly because of the colour of their skin. Martin Luther King realised this and believe discrimination against black people wasn’t right. He wrote a speech which was heard all over the world. He uses many techniques, of which, I think allusion and repetition is most effective. He uses allusion to make reference to the past; this is shown by the quote, “five score years ago, a great American who’s shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation” This quote is referring to Abraham Lincoin’s work for civil rights that released negro’s from slavery such as the slave plantations in African or from being sold in the UK. This is effective because he is reminding the audience that black people have come along way in 100 years but are not still fully free. It makes them think about what happened back then and why it was wrong, if they realise it was wrong then they will realise that nothing has changed and discrimination is still wrong. Martin Luther King also uses contrast, this is shown by the quote, “Joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.” using contrast makes the difference between the past and present more clear to the audience that didn’t suffer like they did. He says “joyous daybreak” which gives people the image of sunrise and goodness compared to “long night” which gives the image of a cold, dark night, which no one wants. It gives an idea of how bad their lives were as slaves. He uses emotive language to give the audience the sort of feelings people in captivity actually lived for years. It is proven by the quote, “Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty”. This is extremely effective, just using the word “poverty” gives the image of great suffering, and extreme conditions they lived through with no one caring for

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