“I Have a Dream” is a public speech which was delivered by Martin Luther King, an American activist struggling for civil rights, on the afternoon of the 28th of August, 1963. His speech is devoted to racism and civil and economic rights in the USA. The delivery of the speech took place in Washington, D.C., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His target audience was represented by 250,000 followers in front of the Lincoln Memorial and millions of people of the nation and the world via radio and television. The actual listeners of the speech were civil rights supporters. The speaker appealed to different strata of society – lawmakers, citizens, etc. In fact, It can be called a speech for everyone – for the black and the white, for the old and the young, since he was speaking about equal human rights, which is important for every person in the world. Martin Luther King had worked on his speech about his dream before that day. The speech was delivered at the March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom, organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. Before that day there were also many marches and demonstrations against discrimination and emancipation, for civil rights. The speech motivated many people to start or continue struggling for equal rights and called for more intensified struggle. King received many awards and gave more speeches after that, although “I Have a Dream” stays the most popular in the world. On the 22nd of November President John F. Kennedy was assassinated (I Have a Dream).
The speech is considered to be a masterpiece of rhetoric and eloquence. It can be analyzed from the position of three rhetorical lenses: voice merging, prophetic voice, and dynamic spectacle. Voice merging includes citations of previous preachers and excerpts from scriptures combined with unique thoughts. King appeals to the secular hymn “America”, uses allusions from the Bible (“It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity” from Psalms; “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” from the Book of Amos 5:24; “I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted” from the Book of Isaiah) (‘I have a dream’, 2003). Besides, the author uses a number of literary devices in his speech, which make it a total success: alliteration (“Rise from the dark and desolate”, “the marvelous new militancy”, “trials and tribulations”) (‘I have a dream’, 2003), amplification (“America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”) (‘I have a dream’, 2003) which helps to make an accent on the essence; contrast and antithesis (“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” ) (‘I have a dream’, 2003), which help to sharpen the ideas; anaphora (repetitions of “I have a dream” at the beginning), which reinforce key points of the speech; parallelism (“We will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together”) (‘I have a dream’, 2003), and many other. Moreover, he calls to action in clear and persuading words and finished his speech on a hopeful note, and as we know, the final part is one of the most significant in any speech. These literary and rhetoric devices and features of Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” have turned it into a legendary masterpiece studied and quoted my people all over the world.
References
I Have a Dream (28 August 1963). (n.d.). Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_i_have_a_dream_28_august_1963/
'I have a dream' (2003, August 21). Retrieved June 22, 2016, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3170387.stm
