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The Rhetorical Analysis Of I Have A Dream

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The Rhetorical Analysis of I Have a Dream The speech “I Have a Dream” was delivered by Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King was the leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The theme of the speech is the expectation of the black and white peacefully and equally existing. The background of the speech is the march on Washington for jobs and freedom, which was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in Unites States history and demanded civil and economic rights for African Americans. The purpose of the speech is to call for an end to racism in the United States and call for civil and economic rights. The speech made by King adopts many rhetorical strategies to make it convincing and call for the independence of the Negro, such as ethos, logos and pathos, and the speech also uses some strategies like parallelism, metaphor, compare and contrast and simile. The essay points out some examples of using rhetorical strategies and analyzes how these strategies work in King’s speech “I Have a Dream”. At the beginning of the speech, we can find an example of ethos. Ethos is a one of the rhetorical devices, and it is the ethical appeal in an essay. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation”. These three words “a great American” make sure that the Emancipation Proclamation is credible. …show more content…

At the same time, we cannot ignore that this speech adopts other common rhetorical devices, such as parallelism, metaphor, compare and contrast and simile. All these rhetorical devices can make listeners convince and easier understand what Martin wants to express. Also, the purpose of the speech is to call for an end to racism in the United States and call for civil and economic rights. Using these rhetorical devices like pathos and parallelism, can win the support among the people, especial the

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