Luther King Junior (MLK) was a preacher, clergyman, and a powerful speaker who started the end to the black and white segregation in America. He created many of the most heartfelt and sincere speeches, and his literary techniques were skills only dreamt up by a common man. During his years he created many memorable speeches, such as “I Have a Dream” (IHD), “Eulogy for the Martyred Children” (EMC) and his final speech “I've Been to the Mountaintop” (IBM). Within these speeches MLK has gone about employing
passing on a message of equality and acceptance. This message resonated with thousands of equality activists who were in attendance at the Lincoln memorial. Literary elements in this speech include but are not limited to similes, and examples of allusion. One of the prominent literary devices used in Martin Luther King Junior’s “I Have a Dream” speech is the simile. Throughout history speeches have used simile as a source of catching attention. Specifically, in MLK’s speech, he writes “No, no, we
establish a relation with the message, or main idea. In “I Have a Dream”, King favorably used figurative language to bring attention to the effects of the civil rights movement, which occurred in the later twentieth century. King successfully used allusions and metaphors to stress the prevalence of discrimination in the United States throughout his speech. Most important of all, King employed a sense of emotion throughout his speech, which could be heard even by just reading the
be equal rights for all people, no matter what race they are. Throughout the speech, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s tone is passionate, motivational, hopeful, and angry. His speech is filled with tons of figurative language, imagery, repetition, and allusion. However, the most influential feature of the entire speech was symbolism because it greatly affected the audience, expanded the purpose of the speech,