Metaphors In Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream

Repetition is found all throughout Washington 's speech. He repeats the phrase "cast down your buckets where you are" to strengthen his allegory. The more it is said, the more it is clear that he is not just talking to the African Americans, he is also talking to the "those of the white race". He is implying that the Whites could look to the African Americans for the prosperity of the South, instead of looking to "those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits" (Line 74-75). He is telling both sides to notice what is around them and use what they have.

Racism in America has been around for centuries however it was in the 1960's that the attitudes of many Black Americans started to quickly change and they realized they wanted equality. Out of this, The Civil Rights Movement emerged which was a peaceful social movement that strove for equal human rights for black Americans. The leader of the Civil Rights Movement is no one other than Martin Luther King Jr. In his book, Why We Can't Wait, King tries to convince Black Americans to realize their reality, remember their roots and important and mainly, to seek changes to social conditions and attitudes.

For decades many civil rights leaders and activists fought for rights and equality. None of this was even taken into consideration until King came into play in the 1950s (Fighting For Equal Rights in America par. 2.) As the central figure of civil rights for African Americans, Martin Luther, forced action and change in our nation, and changed opinions of not only African Americans, but whites too. Through his powerful and emphatic speeches, white people began to believe that King was right and that segregation was not right.

The strong voice of Dr. King is seen throughout the letter and his tone is used to display his feeling of desegregation. While using emotion to have a sympathy feeling in his audience and show them the life of an African American during that time. Even though emotion was used Martin Luther King still used logic to explain unjust laws and use example of history to connect with the discrimination going on towards African Americans. To add an extra rhetorical device he used repetition to convey the key points in his letter. From the end of this letter Martin Luther King leaves his audience with the ways to demonstrate ones point through rhetorical devices and his motivation towards racial

Malcom X claims'' Instead of airing our differences in public we need to realize we are all the same family'' ( Malcom x 69-70). In this section of his speech Malcom X uses pathos in an effort to open peoples eyes. He does this to try and unite African Americans and to show them who the real enemy is. Malcom X also uses Logos to help make his argument stronger.

He uses the audience's emotional vulnerability to make his argument stronger and more convincing. Another strategy used it appealing the audiences logical side. Baldwin uses this strategy primarily at the end of his speech to share the consequences of segregation. This can be seen in the last line of the speech when he states “America is not the world and if America is going to become a nation, she must find a way-and this child must help her to find a way-to use the tremendous potential and tremendous energy which this child represents. If this country does not find a way to use that energy, it will be destroyed by that energy”.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s skillful and motivational I Have a Dream speech was a major turning point in America's history. King took a firm stand for equal rights as he confronted the issues of racism. King’s ambition was emphasizing his belief that someday all men could be brothers. The intensifying rise of the civil rights movement helped King’s speech produce a strong outcome on public opinion. The careful use of appeals in King’s most popular speech made it effective, recognizable, and life changing for the people that got to hear it that day and the generations to

Furthermore, he explained how the African-Americans were deprived of their

(645) He successfully emphasizes the irrationality and contradictory with the American opinion by questioning why white soldiers were greeted with praise, but the African American

Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream” is vastly recognized as one of the best speeches ever given. His passionate demand for racial justice and an integrated society became popular throughout the Black community. His words proved to give the nation a new vocabulary to express what was happening to them. Martin was famously a pacifist, so in his speech, he advocated peaceful protesting and passively fighting against racial segregation.

King’s use of pathos helps him to advances his ideas. King is able to pull to his audience’s hearts by referring to the people who fight for desegregation as heroes. He states how these heroes “will be the James Merediths… old, oppressed, battered Negro women… young high school and college students, young ministers and… their elders” (King 4). King reminds his audience that there are many heroes in the world, and the heroes who fight for segregation will be young and old. King tells his audience they can be heroes, further developing King’s view of a socially free America.

King utilizes in addition to parallelism is his use of metaphors all throughout his speech. King uses metaphor in a way to pose an idea and even an argument against any opposing forces in the crowd. As he begins his speech, King refers to president Abraham Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation. He says, “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” (King).

Civil Rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr, in his speech, “I Have a Dream,” addresses the injustices of African Americans in the United States. King’s Purpose is not only to acknowledge the present issues but to unify the African American population in protest of the segregation of their people. He utilizes concrete diction, imagery, and metaphors in order to convey to African Americans the importance of Civil Rights to all men. King uses concrete diction in his speech to convey the harsh injustices African Americans experience. He begins his speech by identifying that even though the Emancipation Proclamation was declared, “One hundred years later, the life of a Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains

Martin Luther King Jr. a baptist minister and civil rights activist led the Civil Rights Movement on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the very Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C. He led the movement with his famous “I have a dream” speech which has become one of the most powerful speeches to this day. Martin led the movement throughout America, his speech had a powerful message and persuaded african americans to take action and be heard. Martin Luther King Jr. used literary devices such as metaphors and similes to draw in and keep his audience. MLK uses a metaphor, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable without using like or as.