Ms. Bos
English 1B
13 February 2014
“I Have a Dream” In-Class Essay
Martin Luther King’s intention for giving his famous I Have a Dream speech is to encourage his audience to recognize that all men are created equal. King supports his argument through a critical tone and through the use of the following rhetorical strategies: repetition of phrases and theme words.
King argues that black people should be treated as white people. King also claims that all races were created equally. Finally, King suggest that we all need to be joined together.
King utilizes repetition in forms like anaphora to bringing everybody together again. In the speech “dream” is used about sixteen times to show what his dream is to all people. “Our” is used about seventeen times to show us that its not just one persons thing its all of ours. “We” is used about thirty times to show that we are all joined and are together as one. All of these words help to prove a certain part of the dream.
King uses an anaphora to make what he says stick in people heads or at least have them get what he is trying to say. I have a dream is repeated in a different sentences, it brings ideas of why king is doing this.King would like to express of being a good american. It’s still well-known today and will never be forgotten. “Now is the time” it’s like if things do change to do it now and don’t waste anytime. One hundred years later is repeated many times at the beginning of a couple of sentences, african american people don’t enjoy justice and things like that. African americans had to deal with all this stuff for a very long time. The king wanted the people to get what he was actually trying to say and comprehend.
Need to include concluding paragraph.