Ms. Casberg
AP English P.3
15 January 2012
AP Essay MLK Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. has always been a great public speaker because of the amount of passion instilled in his words and his extreme mastery in putting images in the minds of his audience. Not to mention, his message is explicitly conveyed to the audience. Martin Luther King Jr. establishes his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize with powerful insight of the Civil Rights Movement, and the must to overcome segregation through the use of figurative language and repetition/example/parallelism/imagery to show that our battle with racism has yet to be over. Martin Luther King uses figurative language to emphasize the importance of the meaning behind his words. He says in his speech over and over “I am mindful that only yesterday” to demonstrate that racism and discrimination is still going on. He discusses the struggles and conflicts blacks faced due to the hatred and violence that is occurring in the world. King repeats the horror of the current situations to allow his audience to understand that something still needs to be done. He feels, maybe if he says it enough times, people will actually do something about it, because the award he is receiving simply means nothing without action. To show that he will not give up until a change comes, he repeats the words “I refuse to accept” and goes on to tell of the excuses people use as why not to change. Martin Luther King Jr. believes that action will lead us down a road where love and hope await. Here we can find a world of freedom and justice. Martin Luther King uses imagery with his figurative language. He uses it to not only tell but show his audiences how the current ways of people are not helping pave the way to a brighter future, which encompasses no discrimination, only peace. He compares racism to a starless night to illustrate that racism is a dark and very inhumane part in the lives of many people. He says “beauty is truth and