Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King Speech

Martin Luther King Jr. was a pivotal member in the Civil Rights movement and was an advocate for peaceful protest to gain equality. The March on Washington was held on August 28, 1963 and was a crucial event in the Civil Rights Movement in which King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. His speech displayed how one could protest peacefully, whilst, his audience, the American people, absorbed the message whole-heartedly due to his use of rhetorical devices. The purpose of King’s speech was to broadcast to the American people that they should protest peacefully instead of protesting with violence. King shows his message by recommending, “We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” Additionally, he believed that one should not exhaust their efforts on violence. King also made clear that it may take some time to gain equality; however, they need to stay strong as stated in the his speech, “No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” King’s speech affected his audience greatly by showing off his ardor and ability to relate to others.

He used allusions, anaphora, and parallelism. King’s use of anaphora and parallelism were vital to his effectiveness. For example, he used parallelism to clarify an essential point in his speech like using, “Now is the time…” and “We can never be satisfied…” to begin sentences. His uses of allusions were also useful due to the fact they had to do with gaining equality. King used these allusions as precursors to the purpose of his speech, to gain equality using peaceful protests. The allusions all referred to equality and the freedom of people similar to the excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created