Literary Elements Used in I Have a Dream Speech

Rhetorical Devices Used in I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King Jr., an icon in the American road to equality, delivered his I Have a Dream speech in Washington D.C., in front of 250,000 people. As an African American In the 1960’s, King was automatically a target for discrimination. Many people did not want to listen to him. They did not want to hear what he had to say, because of his origins; yet, his skin color did not affect his amazing ability to move, and continue to move, vast masses of people.

King persuaded hundreds of thousands of people to move with him on a thorny road to equality; with his talent for persuasion, King used several rhetorical devices in his speech—including allusion, anaphora, and figurative language—to captivate his audience, encourage a behavior of perseverance, and set forth a new chapter of the Americas.

Using illusion, King creates a moral basis for his speech. He uses several references to the bible, which conveys a feeling of trust—an ethos tactic—to get his audience to accept him.

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Since he was an African American, he did need extra trust: he was a spokesman for change vs. 100 year traditions. He started his speech with the line “five score years ago,” which alludes to “four score and seven years ago.”—the opening line to the Gettysburg Address. This is especially poignant, being delivered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. “The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent,” an allusion referring to the opening of Shakespeare’s Richard III—“and now is the winter of our discontent.

” The use of allusion also allows one to associate him with the greater leaders of their age: Jesus Christ, William Shakespeare, and Abraham Lincoln.

Anaphora is used religiously in King’s speech. From the second paragraph to the last, anaphora is used to makes strong points just a bit strong. Nothing stands out like having to hear it twice—or three or four times. Repeating the phrase “one hundred years later…” King has made his point very strong that is has been a century, and the life of the Negro is still segregated. The repetition of “now is the time…” sends across a feeling of haste. As if one sits there a moment longer, it is too much. Near the end, we get to an anaphora of “I have a dream.” This is the most memorable part of King’s speech. King’s dream is for equality. His dream is that his people will not be judged by the color of their skin. The repetition of “I have a dream” is where he brings in his point. Not only is this an anaphora, but is also amplification. King gets strong and strong with his point in each “I have a dream.” This is the theme of the speech, and is why it is so memorable. King also repeats certain words several times: freedom (20 times), we (30 times), our (17 times), you (8 times), nation (10 times), America (5 times), American (4 times), justice (8 times) and injustice (3 times), and dream (11 times). Even just these words by themselves, it tells the story of King.

The amount of literary elements used in this speech is colossal. Many of these include contrasting language. “A joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity” reiterates the horrors that the Negros had to face. By telling again the story of slavery, King has the sympathy of the audience. Metaphor and similes are a very good way to show how one feels about something. They allow a strong set of emotions to go through to your reader. This is exactly what King does, and he does it flawlessly. Figurative Language allows one to associate their speech concepts with concrete images and emotions.