Black Identity
“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation”. This is the first line of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech. Martian Luther King’s speech took place after the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. He delivered the speech on the Lincoln Memorial steps. He voiced this speech to millions of people both blacks and whites. This speech is one of the greatest speeches of the civil rights movement, because it has many rhetorical tropes such as; repetition, assonance and consonance, pathos, logos, metaphors and ethos.
Martin Luther King Jr. uses a lot of repetition in his “I Have a Dream” speech. They are scattered throughout the speech but in very close proximities of each other. One of the repetitions in his “I Have a dream”. Not only is this the name of the speech of the speech but in today’s world it has become a common phrase used in everyday life as people announce their dream to either themselves or loved ones. The phrase is even used by children who dare to dream big. Martian Luther King Jr. uses this phase to show what he sees in the future of America. One of the phrases he uses with it is: “I have dream the one day this nation will and live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” Another is “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their nature. I have a dream today.” That part of the speech was very personal and touching. Using his own children as an example helped to touch people where the heart is. Repeating “I Have a Dream” helped people to start thinking about their own personal dreams that they might have had also. Two other repetitions Martin Luther King Jr. uses is “Let freedom ring” and “Free at last”, but I will be using those
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