Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

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One of the most important and remembered voice of the black civil rights movement is Martin Luther King, Jr, who delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech which inspired blacks and whites alike. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech appealed to the audience and enthralled them with the use of allusions, anaphora, and antithesis. Martin Luther King, Jr. alludes to the Bible, Gettysburg Address, Declaration of Independence, and Shakespeare at several points throughout the speech. King referenced and quoted the Bible verses often, he was part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and truly believed that we are all one nation, under God. “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places be make plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (King 5). King references the Bible throughout his speech because it means that he is a follower of God and his speech corresponds with the Bible, most Americans went…show more content…
He repeats the following phrases: ‘I have a dream,’ ‘one hundred years later,’ ‘now is the time,’ and ‘let freedom ring’ for emphasis.. “But 100 years later the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material society…”(King 1). He does this to emphasize the point he is trying to get across to the audience. In this case, King is reiterating the fact that one hundred years after blacks were given freedom, America has not improved, there is still segregation. The relevant anaphora King makes is ‘I have a dream’ all over the speech, he is emphasizing the fact that he wishes for freedom for everyone,
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