Rhetorical Analysis Of I Have A Dream Speech

In paragraph one he says, “a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation”. The audience can infer from this sentence that he is speaking at the Lincoln Memorial statue in Washington D.C. because Lincoln signed the Emancipation

The ultimate goal of justice is slowly but surely been achieved today for the black community. A day that heavily influenced this achievement was in 1963 during the March on Washington, in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The man who changed lives that day only wanted those who heard him to apply his message to their lives. In his famous, “I Have a Dream” speech Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses repetition, specific, illustrative detail and examples, allusions, and figurative language in order to amplify his message that his audience needed to bond together in order to fight for civil rights and justice now. Dr. King emphasizes the fact that his dream is to achieve racial equality and justice through the use of repetition.

Presenting to the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, Booker T. Washington delivered his most famous speech, "The Atlanta Compromise Address". In this speech Washington shares his belief that his fellow African Americans and other former slaves should make the best of what they have and to strive to excel in the positions and jobs they already occupy rather than continually fighting for. He insists that the people of the white race also do not see what they have around them. He wants the whites and blacks in south to realize that they need each other and should act in ways to coexist. To convey his belief, Washington uses rhetorical strategies such as the following: the three rhetorical appeals, allegory, and repetition.

“I Have a Dream” is a great speech. The author, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- known for his work in the Civil Rights movement during the 60s – just openly addresses the nation on the state of Negro affairs. The purpose of the speech is to stimulate change and rekindle a battered flame in both black and white denizens’ of the United States. With this in mind, he makes it known that those who truly want it must accept change in a non-violent way. When it comes to the audience, the demographic of whom he means to address is very general; however, given the speech was presented in Washington, it is a possibility that the main goal was to reach law and policy creators who work within the nation’s capital.

Alfred M. Green Speech Analysis In the 1860’s, Alfred M. Green gave a speech in Philadelphia regarding the Civil War. Green speaks about how African Americans are treated in a poor manner not only in the Southern region, but in the Northern region too. This speech that he delivered was chiefly intended to recruit fellow African Americans to join Union forces and fight for their freedom, even though African Americans were not allowed to join the Union army at this time. In this speech, Alfred M. Green uses a variety of appeals, schemes, and tropes to encourage his audience to participate and fight in the battle.

Equality means every individual has equal opportunities. Historically, certain groups of people, African Americans, have been denied of their rights as Americans. The Voting Rights of 1965, a law passed, elimated literacy test that restricted African Americans from voting. In Lydon B. Johnson speech ¨ The American Promise¨ ,Johnson is making an effort to have equality among white and black in society.

King also toys with the usage of hyperboles, which exaggerates each word in his speech. Such examples could be seen where he says “we”, “all of god’s children”, or “every person”, which he wants the listeners in the crowd to view themselves and individuals, and see that everyone else has the thought and ideas that King portrays. He also personifies America as a person who has discriminated African Americans, and that people fighting for civil rights are fighting a person, but an entire system of white people. The use of simile represents the power of justice in his most famous line from the 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.” Martin Luther King has made a historical change after the speech, “I Have A Dream”.

African Americans were not treated fairly during slavery. African Americans are just like everyone else and deserve the same right as everyone else, no one should be treated differently by their skin color. Frederick Douglass and Paul Dunbar both talk about slaves and being treated unfair. They both use personal experience to support their ideas. Paul Laurence Dunbar uses conflict in “we wear the mask” to get his point across about African Americans being treated unfairly after slavery ended.

Hughes uses the inequality that still stands in the “free” America to voice that everyone should be equal. Hughes uses various allusions to portray the didactic meaning of the poem that the statements of a free America for everyone, is far from the truth. Making allusions to certain instances, in African American history provided a way for Hughes’ audience to understand his underlying thought. Throughout the formation of the America today, African Americans have been discriminated starting from their beginning as slaves. Hughes describes African Americans during this time period as, “the Negro(s) bearing slavery’s scars.

In the 19th century, slavery and the Reconstruction was a sore subject for the South. Reconstruction forged civil rights for African-Americans, but once the North’s influenced waned in the South, the South terrorized African-Americans and blocked them from accessing their newfound rights. While Reconstruction may have brought civil rights, those rights were quickly squashed by the South’s racism. Even after certain freedoms were securely gained, every new attempt to make African-Americans equal to the white populace was contested. A large group of people were happy to see slavery ended and civil rights rise.

In his 1963 speech “I Have a Dream”, King atop the Lincoln memorial orates his vision of what America should be. King does this in a way, that mimics a lawyer giving an opening statement, by laying out a clear beginning, middle, and end. King understands that by doing this he is appealing to his audience on a rhetorical level, allowing him to reach is audience in a pathetic way. King structures his essay in two ways, first he has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and secondly through his speech he includes several rhetorical devices that allow him to strengthen his argument. To start his speech King alludes to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, symbolically placing himself on the same level as Lincoln.

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