Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a popular iconic personality of the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s, was a strong and inspiring speaker. An African American by birth, Dr. King was a Baptist minister who actively campaigned to end racial discrimination and segregation in America. Dr. King is best known for his belief in non violence and civil disobedience in keeping with Christian beliefs. King, who was inspired by Gandhi, quoted him in many of his speeches while campaigning for the Civil Rights in America (Raab, 2014). Dr. King’s popular speech ‘I have a dream’ is famously known for the skillful employment of various rhetorical elements to entice the audience of the Civil rights Movement period. This 17-minute speech in which Dr. King mostly deviated from his original written text, and that was broadcast through loudspeakers and the radio is considered till date one of the finest speeches the American audience has ever listened to (Hansen, 2005). Thanks to the various rhetorical elements most dexterously employed by Dr. King, the speech eventually led the authorities to give priority to civil rights and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The immediate purpose of Dr. King’s speech was to convince the American citizens across the nation to hold on to the principle of racial equality and to strengthen the hands of the individuals who were already involved in the Civil rights Movement in the country. The audience of Dr. King’s speech consisted of hundreds of thousands of common public who listened to him in person. The speaker also explicitly appealed to lawmakers and citizens across the country. Apart from the audience who listened to him in person, millions of individuals were listening to him on the television and radio. Even individuals who opposed racial equality listened to Dr. King so as to find ways to argue against ensuring civil rights to the Black Americans. Since Dr. King made this popular speech in 1963 millions of people have been listening to the recorded speech in video and audio. To this day, this speech is one among the top 10 orations ever made on the earth (Top 10 greatest speeches, 2016).
The speech has very many powerful emotional appeals since Dr. King very badly wanted to appeal to the fellow citizens of America, both white and black, to inspire change in a non-violent way. Besides, the place he selected for giving the speech, Washington, makes the appeal much more effective. Definitely, the speech easily reached and attempted to engage the lawmakers of America who were concentrated in the nation’s capital city. The style of the oration is narrative as well as argumentative filled with many personal experiences and thoughts. Amid his strategy of emotionally appealing to the general public of the country, Dr. King takes a strong position against the white citizens and the country as a whole. He begins the speech by reminding the audience of the signing of Emancipation proclamation a hundred years ago that was intended to free the Black Americans and safeguard them against discrimination. Employing the metaphor of ‘lonely island’ to refer to the plight of the Black Americans living in dire straits amid exploitation and discrimination even as the rest of the citizens enjoyed the ‘ocean of material prosperity’ affirms his stand against the white American citizens and the nation as a whole.
Even as the speaker does not make any explicit claim, his powerful foundation points make the argument quite visible and clear for the audience. For instance, the metaphor of promissory note he applies to indicate the declaration of Independence signed years ago that guaranteed a fair share to all American citizens irrespective of his or her creed adds a sense of humor to his presentation without diluting the seriousness of the matter in any way. In fact, the metaphor makes clear the purpose of his speech: America continues to deny equal rights to the colored citizens despite having promised to behave fairly with the African Americans. His sense of humor reaches the peak when he declares that the bank of justice itself has gone bankrupt, and motivates the audience, both the black sympathizers and others, to hang on each and every word of the speaker. His argumentative presentation style is powerful enough to call upon action on the part of his audience.
The narrative style of Dr. King also reminds the audience of a Sunday religious sermon with a dark imagery and sincere ideas (King, 2010). For instance, he refers to the citizens of America as children of God in keeping with the Christian tradition. The image of a preacher appealing to the general public to fight injustice against the African Americans in fact adds to the credibility of Dr. King to lead the masses to the land of freedom like the biblical giant Moses. Similarly, beginning his speech by reminding the audience of the liberation of the Black Americans a century ago by legendary leader, Abraham Lincoln adds to the credibility of his speech. King projects himself as a follower of Abraham Lincoln to take his audience into confidence. Also, using biblical codes adds to the ethos or ethic appeal of the speaker. Similarly, the speaker also employs a logical appeal by putting forward a series of problems that demand immediate attention of the general public and the American government. The reasons include: America does not keep her promise of treating everyone fairly; the Black Americans are still not free; the time to make a huge change has just come; the blacks should not hate their white brothers while fighting for their rights.
Though King starts his speech with a pessimistic note, towards the end of his speech, King is very optimistic about the future, which gives the audience an entirely new perspective about his plans for the future. He makes the audience join him in celebrating freedom by singing with a new meaning the famous Patriotic song of America “My country.” Thankfully, King praises God in the last line of his speech for making the hapless Black Americans free at last (Work, n.d). This raises hope in the minds of his people about a prosperous future for all the countrymen.
As for the rhetorical elements employed by King in the speech allusion, anaphora, metaphor and parallelism are prominently seen to add value to his oration. For instance, he starts his speech by reminding the audience that exactly 100 years ago all the citizens of the country were promised equality in all respects by the American government; however, till now most of the African Americans are denied the promised freedom which drives him to make this legendary speech. The use of anaphora that made his speech immortal is evident throughout his speech. For instance, repeated use of ‘I have a dream’ reiterates the need for all the countrymen to act to realize his dream of seeing the Black Americans free in the coming days. Secondly, several metaphors throughout the speech add color and life to his speech. Use of metaphors makes the audience visualize the dreams of the author. All the metaphors are smartly crafted and powerful. For example, mountain of despair is a metaphor that indicates the predicament of the enslaved Black Americans in undertaking a hectic task of climbing a steep mountain to ultimately reach the peak of liberty. King being a passionate preacher also adopts several vocal techniques to impress his audience. For instance, he pauses after uttering the phrase ‘I have a dream’ every time. This gives amble time for the audience to contemplate on what he has just said. This technique helps the audience in clearly remembering King’s dream and making it his or her own dream too. The subtle use of parallelism towards the end of the speech makes it all the more memorable. For instance, one of King’s famous statements in the speech goes like this: “With this belief we will be able to labor together, to pray together, to fight together, to go to prison together, to stand up for liberty together, knowing for sure that we will be free one day” (King, 2010). By repeating infinitive phrases, King creates an effective parallelism to enable his message reach the masses.
In short, ‘I have a dream’ is a master piece of rhetoric capable of equally touching the hearts of both black sympathizers and haters. No wonder, the speech was a grand success in persuading the authorities to pass a civil right act in favor of the Black Americans the year after King made his memorable speech.
References
Hansen, D. (2005). The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York: Harper Perennial.
King, M.L. (2010). I have a dream. In J. Aaron (Ed.), 40 model essays: a portable anthology. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s
Raab, N. (2014). 10 people who inspired Martin Luther King. Forbes.Retrieved from http:// www.forbes.com/sites/nathanraab/2014/01/20/10-people-who-inspired-martin-luther-king-and-he-hoped-would-inspire-us/#3afe9bdb5aa1
Top 10 greatest speeches. (2016). Time. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/ time/ specials/ packages/completelist/0,29569,1841228,00.html
Work, J.W. (n.d). American Negro Songs. Retrieved from http://www.negrospirituals. com/ songs/free_at_last_from.htm
