How Is The Imagery Used In I Have A Dream Speech

In 1963, a speech was given to over 200,00 people In Washington D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s most famous speech, his I Have A Dream Speech. One big significant part of his speech was the amount of imagery, which was used in half of the speech. Imagery was used throughout his speech to depict both the hardships African Americans have faced and also the future they hope to achieve. He uses vivid nature imagery in order to allow the masses to understand and relate to his ideas in yet a simple, but effective way.
Not only was it just a powerful speech, but a moving one as well. But what made it so moving and powerful? King did a symbolic effect when he gave his speech on the steps of Abraham Lincoln's Memorial and echoed the opening words of the Gettysburg address. To add on, King eloquently references the Gettysburg Address as well as the Emancipation
“I am not mindful that some of you have come here out of much trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from fresh narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest—quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.” This quote shows the reader that he knows the people and the much trouble he has gone through, because he also might have gone through it himself. Then he ends on a hopeful note, King traverses intense emotional territory, from the “flames of withering injustice” to those “battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.” But he closes by filling his listeners’ hearts with a hopeful, aspirational message. He paints a picture of how things can be: “One day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and