A Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr was a Baptist Minister in 1960’s America. He fought for what he believed in, suffered for these beliefs and was a key person in the push for racial equality in the 50’s and 60’s, with a speech known as “I have a dream” that lead him to being the youngest male to receive a Nobel prize. The speech was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 200 000 civil rights supporters, and was ranked the top speech of the 2oth century. As said by John Lewis a U.S. representative of the time, “dr. king had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, and he informed
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not just the people there, but throughout America and unborn generations”.
In his speech he used several affective language features, these being repetition, figurative language, a changing persona and intertextuality. Through these language devices he was able to challenge and alter the attitudes the white people had towards colored people and the discrimination and inequality they faced.
Repetition in this speech is used not only as a structural device but as a language feature. It generally used to re-emphasis an already spoken point, in this case it is used to tie six of the most powerful paragraphs in the speech together, Americas nation as a whole, referencing the past, referencing the present, prejudice, referencing the future and bringing forth the idea of general equality. Each of these points would be completely isolated from each other, be lost in the speech, not have as much impact and would not be as easily remembered, however Martin Luther King uses the line I HAVE A DREAM to draw the audience’s attention and place all these points together.
Metaphors are used strongly in this speech.
They allow you to associate concepts with concrete images and emotions, or to highlight the differences between the abstract concepts by contrasting them with the concrete mental pictures, for example to compare segregation with racial justice, Martin Luther King uses the phrase “rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice”. People will associate the words dark and desolate valley to a gloomy, dark unwelcoming place surrounded by walls that you can not get out of, however by using the words sunlit path of racial justice creates the image of a bright happy and open area. In general terms dark and desolate have nothing to do with the work segregation and neither sunlit with racial justice, but by wording it this way it shows people that the dark and hideous place of segregation is where we don’t want to be, but a happy and cheerful place of racial justice? That’s what we want and that’s where we need to be. Metaphors however aren’t the only language device that creates mental images in the audience’s heads.
Persona is in a sense the mask the author wears to adopt a certain role, which the audience will be able to relate to in some way. The way in which a persona is used will ultimately affect how the audience responds to the information. Martin Luther King Jr changes his persona at almost every paragraph. He does this so to keep the interest of both the white and black people in the audience but to also show that there is more than just one side to a person, therefore they should not be judged by one characteristic. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose shadow we stand today, signed
the
Emancipation Proclamation. 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 captivity”. This whole paragraph is aimed at the white people. By using words such as decree, and referencing Abraham Lincoln creates the persona of an authoritive educated man. The white people would have admired this character and respected him more, leading them to be more accepting of his ideas. However when speaking to the mistreated black community he created a persona of an everyday educated man, as he wanted them to respond to him as a person of the same situation as them, but someone they can idolize for rising out of it, standing up for himself and being respected by the whites because of this. He shows his willingness to debate the mistreatment of blacks in the paragraph “when will you be satisfied? We will never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “for Whites only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” by not using extremely technical words but ones powerful and full of emotion he is connecting with the blacks on a level they understand. Pointing fingers and particular places, makes the black people feel like he understands them more, he knows what is going on, and he is trying to make it better for them!
Intertextuality is used within this speech, but in a very subtle way. It is the idea of easily explaining something by comparing it to something already known. Martin Luther King was a very smart man, and he knew what it would take to get the white peoples attention and place guilt on them without them noticing. “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice”. Countless times in this example he uses money as a reference point for a metaphor. He knows that the one thing white people in America know about is money. He makes it seem as though he is speaking to the black people in the audience, but really what did the blacks of this time know about money, they didn’t have any. He uses it to give the whites a greater understanding of the hurt of the black’s in an attempt to make them feel guilty for their actions.
By using repetition to emphasis and bring attention to isolated points, comparing and contrasting abstract concepts to concrete mental images through the use of metaphors, by changing his persona throughout the speech to be more identifiable to a broader audience, and referencing the ill-treatment of the blacks to money, something white people understood too well, Martin Luther King Jr was able to alter and most importantly challenge the attitudes of the white people towards the African American community in 1960’s America.
not just the people there, but throughout America and unborn generations”.
In his speech he used several affective language features, these being repetition, figurative language, a changing persona and intertextuality. Through these language devices he was able to challenge and alter the attitudes the white people had towards colored people and the discrimination and inequality they faced.
Repetition in this speech is used not only as a structural device but as a language feature. It generally used to re-emphasis an already spoken point, in this case it is used to tie six of the most powerful paragraphs in the speech together, Americas nation as a whole, referencing the past, referencing the present, prejudice, referencing the future and bringing forth the idea of general equality. Each of these points would be completely isolated from each other, be lost in the speech, not have as much impact and would not be as easily remembered, however Martin Luther King uses the line I HAVE A DREAM to draw the audience’s attention and place all these points together.
Metaphors are used strongly in this speech.
They allow you to associate concepts with concrete images and emotions, or to highlight the differences between the abstract concepts by contrasting them with the concrete mental pictures, for example to compare segregation with racial justice, Martin Luther King uses the phrase “rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice”. People will associate the words dark and desolate valley to a gloomy, dark unwelcoming place surrounded by walls that you can not get out of, however by using the words sunlit path of racial justice creates the image of a bright happy and open area. In general terms dark and desolate have nothing to do with the work segregation and neither sunlit with racial justice, but by wording it this way it shows people that the dark and hideous place of segregation is where we don’t want to be, but a happy and cheerful place of racial justice? That’s what we want and that’s where we need to be. Metaphors however aren’t the only language device that creates mental images in the audience’s heads.
Persona is in a sense the mask the author wears to adopt a certain role, which the audience will be able to relate to in some way. The way in which a persona is used will ultimately affect how the audience responds to the information. Martin Luther King Jr changes his persona at almost every paragraph. He does this so to keep the interest of both the white and black people in the audience but to also show that there is more than just one side to a person, therefore they should not be judged by one characteristic. “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose shadow we stand today, signed
the
Emancipation Proclamation. 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 captivity”. This whole paragraph is aimed at the white people. By using words such as decree, and referencing Abraham Lincoln creates the persona of an authoritive educated man. The white people would have admired this character and respected him more, leading them to be more accepting of his ideas. However when speaking to the mistreated black community he created a persona of an everyday educated man, as he wanted them to respond to him as a person of the same situation as them, but someone they can idolize for rising out of it, standing up for himself and being respected by the whites because of this. He shows his willingness to debate the mistreatment of blacks in the paragraph “when will you be satisfied? We will never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “for Whites only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” by not using extremely technical words but ones powerful and full of emotion he is connecting with the blacks on a level they understand. Pointing fingers and particular places, makes the black people feel like he understands them more, he knows what is going on, and he is trying to make it better for them!
Intertextuality is used within this speech, but in a very subtle way. It is the idea of easily explaining something by comparing it to something already known. Martin Luther King was a very smart man, and he knew what it would take to get the white peoples attention and place guilt on them without them noticing. “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice”. Countless times in this example he uses money as a reference point for a metaphor. He knows that the one thing white people in America know about is money. He makes it seem as though he is speaking to the black people in the audience, but really what did the blacks of this time know about money, they didn’t have any. He uses it to give the whites a greater understanding of the hurt of the black’s in an attempt to make them feel guilty for their actions.
By using repetition to emphasis and bring attention to isolated points, comparing and contrasting abstract concepts to concrete mental images through the use of metaphors, by changing his persona throughout the speech to be more identifiable to a broader audience, and referencing the ill-treatment of the blacks to money, something white people understood too well, Martin Luther King Jr was able to alter and most importantly challenge the attitudes of the white people towards the African American community in 1960’s America.