I Have A Dream Speech Rhetorical Devices

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Years ago there was an issue in the United States that was causing many arguments, segregation. There was one man and his speech that was a huge part in getting rid of segregation in America. One of the most influential speeches in American history was Martin Luther King Jr’s I have a Dream speech. The key information of the speech is in a format called SOAPSTONE. SOAPSTONE stands for subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, and tone. The subject of the speech is stopping segregation and the occasion is that segregation has gone too far. The audience is people who are segregating the African Americans. The speaker is Martin Luther King Jr. The tone is determined and hopeful. There were many factors that made the speech so influential like similes, metaphors, symbolism, and allusion. There is one writing tactic that made the speech as powerful as it is, repetition. Repetition is the most important part of making the speech great because of how it pounds a message into the readers’ minds by repeatedly saying the message that is intended in a creative way, there are several examples of this in the text and three great examples, one hundred years later, now is the time, and I have a dream. The first…show more content…
Dr.King uses the phrase “Now's the Time” multiple times throughout the speech. While in may seem pointless, it has a huge meaning behind it. “Now is the time” goes with one hundred years later. This is because, by saying this has been going on one hundred years and NOW, we have to end it. By repeatedly stating this, he tells the crowd that now segregation must end. While saying “one hundred years later” was made to make the reader feel guilty and bad, “now is the time” is used to let the white people that this is no joke and it must end now. Using the phrase repeatedly makes the audience feel scared and get the
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