Parallelism In Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

Beginning almost as soon in America as what is known as “America” did, slavery lead to hatred against the African and African-American races (known as negro or black in the vernacular), and as time progressed these races became more entwined with life in America until the time came where they were seen as equals by a majority of the population, and they were freed from the shackles of slavery. This, however, did not stop racism, it, instead, increased its effect, for many people, especially those in the South, hated the color for being freed. This hatred led to the segregation and inequality of many colored peoples for almost one hundred years; until, the Supreme Court, in the Brown versus Board of Education case, said the segregation of
On the twenty-eighth August, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a speech to over a hundred thousand people, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, known by the name “I Have a Dream.” The diction, parallelism, and syntax used by
King’s usage of parallelism in this speech bequeaths upon the audience an immense obligation to follow King and his cause with gusto. Primarily, through parallelism King highlights on the states considered to be the most racist, but he does not talk down to them he instead speaks only of the good of those places and the racism in the past. The parallelism of this sets the sentences together, alone from the text, delivering them as equals highlighting the similarities in each place, but it also highlights the booming confidence King has in what he’s doing and what this movement will accomplish. This glaring confidence and optimistic views for even the worst of places not only unites those who have felt the repercussions of the area but of those who see King as a leader, as their leader, for he will make all of America a safer place for all members of society. Next, King spoke of freedom ringing from a mountain or raised landmass from a throng of states. This firstly emphasizes the importance of freedom, for mountains often symbolize something close to the heavens or godlike, so King is saying to him freedom is something belonging to the heavens. This detail from the speech also has King listing many places in the United States amassing those living in those places and touching each one personally to join him on his cause; his use in landform size also has an effect on the person, for when he says, “…from the snow-capped Rockies … [and] from every hill and