Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered at Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. In hopes of planting the seed of equality into every American’s heart and letting it flourish. King expresses his profound and powerfully emotional thoughts while also mentioning momentous decrees such as the Emancipation Proclamation and Declaration of Independence that were signed by our founding fathers in our nations early history. These documents were intended to unlock the invisible cage that once held African Americans hostage from being treated as equals. Centuries later the Negro community was still riddled by racial injustice and oppression.
It states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The entire human race is born equal so, no one man is more deserving or more superior to another. Those Americans being oppressed feel powerless which makes them unable to carry out their dreams and make their hopes a reality. But it is up to those suffering to “bring back their mighty dream again”. As a black American, Langston Hughes speaks on behalf of all American
King’s argument for the rights of African Americans was well made, with well rounded support. King used emotional first person experience, the experience of others; his family, his friends, and his audience to support his argument. He also uses the constitution to support his argument. The preamble to the constitution states the United States will secure the blessings of liberty for all man. The constitution claims all men are created equal and guarantees rights of “life, liberty, and happiness” (Mount).
In this speech Martin also demonstrate that hope exists if action is taken in order to abolish discrimination. Martin Luther King’s speech brings hope to the African American culture, that his reason to engage with the audience is to get a closer relationship with them making it easier for him to communicate and immense the audience into a realm manifested by the distinctive concerns of his time. The quotes “we cannot walk alone” and “Let Freedom ring”, the combination of the 2 quotes brings hope into the audience. ” We cannot walk alone” the meaning of this quote is, the power of one person
Martin Luther Kings’ speech emphasized, “Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.” (King) Martin Luther King, Jr. used the Declaration of Independence to instill the confidence he had in furthering his cause. He quoted, “rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (King) Martin Luther King has supported his facts in the speech he gave that the American Government has neglected its’ obligation to the people by matter of color. Martin Luther King reiterates his original focus on “When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” (King) “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” (King) This remark informing the citizens that they all had been lied to giving King the ability to persuade to his audience the injustices that had been bestowed on the Negros. King invoked his emphasis on the human emotion to ensure that the public would change ones views upon Negros. He hopes the American people would understand the injustice of racism and take a stand for equality wishing for a new and better world for the future to come.
I think this was a smart move because the speech could comfort the citizens and make them realize that they should stand up and fight for themselves. Changing the Talk Card could change the overall message because different characters can make people easily experience the same feeling that Dr. King was experiencing and cheer the citizens up. I think the style of Dr. King’s speech is power because the whole speech was very inspiring and it represented a great power of his desperation towards freedom and justice. The main goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to express how much the Negros want to have the same rights as white man. They could not stand for the discrimination and they were going fight for justice.
"I have a dream that one day the nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed… that all men are created equal." For the next few lines of his speech he repeated these words, "I have a dream," which helped arouse emotion in his audience and give them hope. This hope was that they would one day be treated as equals and walk side by side with the all other races. King uses his the phrase "I have a dream today," twice as its own paragraph. This statement was probably spoken with great emphasis since it gave the listeners the desire to change "today" instead of continuing to be discriminated against.
“Five score years ago” made reference to a speech that Lincoln gave, the Gettysburg Address, in which he began by the undying words “Four score and seven years ago.” To solidify his opening and the thesis of his speech, King speaks about the Emancipation Proclamation, a document that had a purpose of freeing black slaves in America. This allusion was the beginning of his speech and the main topic of it: Equality in America. He quotes from the Declaration of Independence and from the founding fathers of our country, striking a patriotic chord of all who are listening, telling stories of how our forefathers saw this country, as one united nation, with nobody being denied their unammendable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By evoking that feeling of patriotism, King brought a nation together on something they could agree on, and then he influenced the people as a whole to believe as he did. To bring out more emotion from the audience, King aggressively pushes the issue of blacks being treated poorly.
He wanted to see one united American society based upon the promises of the leaders of America; that all men should be equal and that they have the right to be first class citizens of America with the whites. Martin adopted an integrationist philosophy and believed that through peace equality is possible. His approaches to equality were non-violent protesting, speaking out for non-violence, in his speech MLK showed that he was a peaceful leader. He also used logos in some ways as tried to give evidence to the audience as he mentioned when Lincoln signed the proclamation. King wanted all the races to come together for the hatred and violence to be put to an end.
Rhetorical Analysis of “I Have a Dream” On August 28, 1963, over 200,000 people stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC to hear a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was a prominent clergyman, activist, and leader in the Civil Rights movement. King’s methods for civil disobedience used non-violence as a way to bring attention to the plight of the black man. This speech, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, is known as one of the greatest orations of modern times. Dr. King uses many literary techniques in order to add to the meaning of the words. Repetition, metaphors, and prose are all present in his oration.