How Is Martin Luther King’s ‘Voice’ Created By The

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How is Martin Luther King’s ‘voice’ created by the language techniques of his speech? Martin Luther King delivers the message of his speech and expresses his feelings about topics affecting the people of America through many language techniques such as metaphors and similes. This essay will describe the few language techniques King uses and will explain how he uses these various language techniques in order to reach the hearts of the American people. To begin, we see that King quite frequently uses metaphors to emphasise what has been affecting the Negro’s and what the Negro’s are striving to achieve. “…chains of discrimination…” “…great vaults of opportunity…” “…quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.” The use of metaphors help to emphasise the message that King is trying to push for and helps keep listeners interested and holds their attention. King also uses anaphora quite frequently during the course of his speech. He uses anaphora to keep the momentum of a specific topic he may be discussing such as life of the Negro’s. “One hundred years later…” “I have a dream…” “Let freedom ring…” are all repeated to help remind the audience of the themes he is speaking about. Antithesis has also been used in his speech to reveal the goals he wishes to achieve. “…lonely island of poverty…vast ocean of material prosperity.” “…desolate valley of segregation…sunlit path of racial justice.” “…quicksands of racial injustice…solid rock of brotherhood.” The use of antithesis distinguishes between what King wishes to leave behind and what he is pursuing for the future of both the Negro’s and the White Americans. King uses allusion in his speech to show the audience his motivation for the goals he wishes to achieve. “…a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand…” is an allusion to the great American, Abraham Lincoln who signed the
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