Rhetorical Analysis Of Mr. King's Speech

The key phrases that I have identified are Negro and America from the beginning sentences. The correlation that I notice with the use of these phrases is that he is expressing to the public that a change needs to occur for America to create unity and equality for the Blacks to be included in society. In the following sentences from his speech, he expresses how no change has happened over the course of time towards the Black population. “But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.” “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” These key phrases express the main objective in his speech and that is the division between the Whites and Blacks in society. Mr. King is emphasizing that Blacks are still not free in society even though slavery has been abolished. He addresses the segregation that still exists which is promoting a form of discrimination among society. The end goal of his speech was to open the eyes of the nation to identify the problem and to act on this issue of discrimination by not engaging into the problem anymore.
King uses several metaphors during his speech, but there is one metaphor that stood out for me. “America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” Mr. King is describing the injustice that is currently happening for the Black community and the treatment that society has molded for them as an outcast race. But he is expressing to the people (Mostly Blacks) that they shouldn’t have to conform themselves to this idea and that equal opportunity and justice should be evenly distributed throughout the