Compare And Contrast I Have A Dream And Letter From Birmingham Jail

MLK Essay

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and “Letter From Birmingham Jail” both deal with the topic of civil rights. However, the letter and the speech are different in terms of rhetorical strategies because he is targeting a different audience.

The “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered to over 250,000 people during the March on Washington in 1963.While giving this speech, King spoke in an optimistic and prophetic tone. The purpose of this tone is to give the listeners a sense of hope and to allow them to think about what is being said to them. King also uses historical allusions by alluding to Abraham Lincoln. For example, he introduces the topic of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation by saying “Five score years ago” which alludes to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, where Lincoln says “Four score and seven years ago.” The allusion was a tribute to Lincoln and his accomplishments, as the Emancipation Proclamation was established one hundred years prior to King’s speech. Religious allusions are also included in this speech. King was not only a civil rights activist,

In this letter, King uses logos, or writes in a logical manner because of the people he is speaking to. Since the letter is aimed at clergymen, he writes using formal diction. For instance, King used more complex vocabulary such as “democratically,” “existential,” and “paternalistically.” Furthermore, he uses figurative language. For example, he explains that racism is like “a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness.” The purpose of using figurative language is to get the clergymen to see how bad the situation is. This phrase is also a comparison to the racism problem, both of which needed to be exposed in some way so others will see what they can do to fix the