MLK's I Have Dream Speech

Rhetorical Devices in MLK’s I have a Dream Speech

A rhetorical device is any language that helps an author or speaker achieve a particular purpose (usually persuasion, since rhetoric is typically defined as the art of persuasion). But “rhetorical device” is an extremely broad term, and can include techniques for generating emotion, beauty, and spiritual significance as well as persuasion.

Alliteration is the use of a stream of words with the same first phoneme, only interrupted by grammatically required words (e.g. a(n), the, to, for, by, etc.). It is used for emphasis, suggesting a humorous or even threatening tone.

• The zoo kept several selfish seals.

• I hate that heartless heathen.

Analogy is an important device in which the explains one thing by comparing it to another. At the sentence level, this might be as simple as saying “my cat’s fur is as white as a cloud.” But analogies can also function at much higher levels, including paragraphs and whole essays. For example, you might argue against war by drawing an extended analogy between the war on terrorism and World War 2. The success of the whole argument would depend entirely on how well you could persuade readers to accept the analogy!

Parallelism: In rhetoric, Parallel Syntax (also known as parallel construction and parallelism) is a rhetorical device that consists of repetition among adjacent sentences or clauses. ... In addition to providing emphasis, it is evident that parallel structure appeals to the reader or listener in a variety of ways as well.

Metaphor comparison of two objects or ideas that does not use "like or "as".

Simile is a gentler form of metaphor that always uses "as" or "like" to compare something to something else. For example, "his beard was like a lion's mane".

Repetition, repetition, repetition is the simple repeating of a word for emphasis.

Imagery can be defined as a writer or speaker’s use of words or figures of speech to create a vivid mental picture or physical sensation. Many good examples of imagery and figurative language can be found in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” a sermon delivered by the Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards. For example, Edwards creates a powerful image figurative language when he says:

‘We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell.”

Types of Imagery

Although the word “imagery” most often brings to mind mental images, imagery is not always visual; it can appeal to any of the five senses. Here is a list of some types of imagery that appeal to different senses:

• Auditory imagery appeals to the sense of hearing.

· Gustatory imagery appeals to the sense of taste.

· Kinetic imagery conveys a sense of motion.

· Olfactory imagery appeals to the sense of smell.

· Tactile imagery appeals to the sense of touch.

· Visual imagery is created with pictures (many visual images are pictures of things representing well-known sayings or phrases).

Personification: Another common type of figure of speech is personification. A writer uses personification when he gives human qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics to nonhuman entities. The nonhuman entities can be animals or inanimate (non-living) things. Here are some examples of the use of personification in the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In poem # 712, “I Could Not Stop for Death,” Emily presents Death as the driver of a carriage. In poem #986, “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass,” Dickinson gives human qualities to a snake when she refers to him as a “Fellow” and one of “Nature’s People.”

Restatement. The literary device of restatement is expressing the same idea in different words. in writing. Many authors use it to attach the reader, get them thinking, and persuade them to look at a different perspective.

Rhetorical Analysis Examples:

In his "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King uses pathos to build a relationship with his black and white audiences; we can see this through his references to black and white children and allusions to times of slavery which appealed to the emotions of both parents and older generations.

MLK uses Ethos in the beginning of his speech to achieve the audience to feel as they are fighting with many other famous Americans, such as the Founding Fathers and Abe Lincoln. Since, many Americans trust those famous men, they trust Martin Luther King, Jr., and they respect him.

Logos: Dr. King points out that black and white people have to live together, and the freedom of each is dependent on the other. This is the rational foundation for his plea for non-violence:

“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

Analogy Example: "It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds."

In this example, King compares the nation to a bank and justice to money.

Rhetorical Questions:

Ex.: “When will you be satisfied?”

King asks this question to make people think.

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly 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 prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. 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. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. **We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only."** We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made 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."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

9th Grade Literature and Composition EOC (GSE) Quiz

I Have A Dream

Martin Luther King, Jr.

¹ I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

² Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

³ But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly 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 prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

⁴ In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. 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. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

⁵It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

1) In his speech, why does Dr. King use words like withering, languishing, and injustice?

A) to show his knowledge

B) to confuse the audience

C) to exaggerate his point

D) to create emotional feelings

2) Why does King use the rhetorical technique of parallel structure in his speech?

A) to show that he is aware of the time that has passed

B) to show that others are not aware of the time that has passed

C) to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance

D) to show that two or more of his ideas will not happen concurrently

3) In paragraph 3, which rhetorical technique is being used to add emphasis?

A) overstatement

B) understatement

C) parallel structure

D) rhetorical question

4) Which statement BEST describes the author's use of vocabulary appropriate for his audience and his purpose?

A) The author uses casual, informal vocabulary and quotations from American leaders to connect to his audience.

B) The author uses Standard American English and metaphors to connect to his audience.

C) The author uses formal language and technical terms to connect to his audience.

D) The author uses questions and sarcastic humor to connect to his audience.

5) Who is the intended audience for this speech?

A) children

B) white men

C) all people

D) Negro people

6) The last four sentences of the speech (beginning "Now is the time...") demonstrate which rhetorical device?

Answer: ____________________________________________

7) This speech is an example of which kind of writing?

Answer: ____________________________________________

8) This excerpt from Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech shows

A) his anger that all Americans are not free.

B) his belief that banks have not been fair to Americans.

C) his desire to bring freedom and justice to all Americans.

D) his ideas to change the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

9) In this excerpt from his speech, what is one technique Dr. King uses to appeal to his audience?

A) He uses a testimonial.

B) He only uses literal language.

C) He uses loaded words and phrases.

D) He uses quotes from famous documents.

10)

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. 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. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In this portion of his famous speech, what is one way that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. expresses his message or theme?

A) He uses similes to compare the issues that he mentions in his speech.

B) He uses a metaphor to compare an uncashed check to the promises of America.

C) He uses personification to make the United States of America seem like a real person.

D) He uses hyperbole to exaggerate the lack of freedom and justice in the United States.

11) Which sentence uses a metaphor to dramatize Dr. King's point vividly?

A) But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.

B) But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.

C) We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.

D) This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.

12) What metaphor does Dr. King use to symbolize the responsibility of America for slavery?

A) a sunlit path

B) an island of poverty

C) the manacles of segregation

D) a bad check or promissory note

13) Which rhetorical device does Dr. King rely on most heavily in this passage?

A) simile

B) metaphor

C) allusion

D) rhetorical question

14) Which figurative device do manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination demonstrate?

A) simile

B) metaphor

C) metonymy

D) oxymoron

15) One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

What is the literal meaning of this figurative sentence from the passage?

A) African Americans are waiting for someone to rescue them.

B) The ocean of prosperity contains an island for African Americans.

C) Some African Americans live on an island in the middle of the ocean.

D) Poverty isolates African Americans from the mainstream of American society.

16) When Dr. King said, "We have come to our nation's capital to cash a check," he was using

A) hyperbole.

B) personification.

C) an extended simile.

D) an extended metaphor.