Allusions In I Have A Dream Speech
The years after World War II were some of the most controversial in American history. Boycotts, protests, and strikes began to arise amongst society as discrimination and segregation became barbarous. Minorities began to feel a rush of anger flowing through them due to the lack of respect they got. Ruthless people would physically and mentally abuse those who were considered different in color and culture. A few heroic individuals took a stand against the laws and fought for their rights either violently, like Malcolm X, or peacefully. Out of those, one who created a sympathetic perspective onto the American society was Martin Luther King, Jr. In his ‘I have a dream’ speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. used rhetorical strategies such as allusions
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King used the phrase “Five score years ago…” which relates to former president Abraham Lincoln’s phrase “Four score and seven years ago…” in his Gettysburg Address. That phrase was meant to remind the audience of the vision of an equal nation that the Founding Fathers had. The vision of equality stood within the nation for centuries and failed to come true. The United States created the separation between colors and made it seem okay to do so. Beginning with slavery, in which Abraham Lincoln abolished, to segregation where King along with many others tried to do something about. Even after the abolishment of slavery, African Americans were still seen as ‘dirty’, or ‘not like the rest’, and were never given true justice. King continues this allusion with “… a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation…” King’s speech took place 100 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves. King used the Declaration of Independence in reference to the phrase “all men were created equal…with certain unalienable rights.” to continue his point that Americans have failed to follow the future hopes that the nation’s ancestors had. This caused the act of discrimination and segregation to look far much worse than society had seen
King used the phrase “Five score years ago…” which relates to former president Abraham Lincoln’s phrase “Four score and seven years ago…” in his Gettysburg Address. That phrase was meant to remind the audience of the vision of an equal nation that the Founding Fathers had. The vision of equality stood within the nation for centuries and failed to come true. The United States created the separation between colors and made it seem okay to do so. Beginning with slavery, in which Abraham Lincoln abolished, to segregation where King along with many others tried to do something about. Even after the abolishment of slavery, African Americans were still seen as ‘dirty’, or ‘not like the rest’, and were never given true justice. King continues this allusion with “… a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation…” King’s speech took place 100 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves. King used the Declaration of Independence in reference to the phrase “all men were created equal…with certain unalienable rights.” to continue his point that Americans have failed to follow the future hopes that the nation’s ancestors had. This caused the act of discrimination and segregation to look far much worse than society had seen