Rhetorical Devices In Martin Luther King's Speech

Martin Luther King Jr was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th 1929. He was a pastor, activist and the prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement and is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism. He is most famous for his speech called “I have a dream”. It is about not being segregated or discriminated against and to have equal rights between white and black people. It is now recognised as one of the greatest speeches in history.
Martin Luther King used a number of rhetorical devices in his speech. The main rhetorical device used throughout the speech is repetition and parallelism. In each paragraph he repeats different sentences to emphasise what he is saying. He repeats phrases such as ‘one hundred years later’, ‘we can never be satisfied’, ‘I have a dream’ and ‘now is the time’ to make the listener remember the parts he wants to emphasise. It is effective because the people are anticipating to expect it so then they can join in. Also later on in life people will look back at the speeches and remember it for certain phrases because of the repetition.
‘The sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood’ He makes the audience feel as though it is there duty as well to overcome the discrimination and try and make all the southern states of America united and equal. He also makes the audience feel like it is their dream too and not just his. Inclusive Pronouns are effective because it gives the sense of unity within the audience. Martin Luther King also directly addresses the audience which also gives the sense of it being