Jerry Mobley

ENG 112-72
Instructor Alexander
Rhetorical Analysis
I Have a Dream
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech called I have a Dream
at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. His speech was the turning point on Washington.
He had dream that one day there would be peace between all races. It touched everybody all
over the world. His speech put the civil rights movement into the hearts and minds of Americans
and beyond. He touched his audience by using symbolism, and powerful addiction. This speech
that he delivered named him Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 and led him to his
Nobel Peace Prize the next year.
As I watch Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his speech, I could tell this his body language
was very calm and strong. Even though I cant see his feet, he looks like he is standing up
straight and tall and had a strong posture. When he spoke, he spoke loud and clear so that he can
make sure they hear him loud and clear. He wanted his audience to know that he was serious
about what he was saying.
Dr. King open up his speech with a very strong and understanding use of diction thats
creates a logical and emotional impact on his audience. I think that the main purpose of this
speech was that he wanted to focus on the African Americans and how they are living in the
United States. When he first started talking, he stated that he is grateful everybody that came.
At this point, I think that he is starting to create his appearance of pathos. Then he creates a
logical appeal when he started talking about the Emancipation Proclamation; when it gave hope
to millions of Negro slaves who had seared the flames in weathering justice, thats what he said
in his speech. The Emancipation Proclamation was when the African Americans started to get
closer to social hierarchy. Martin Luther king then uses anaphora; he started to describe that it
had been one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation but the African Americans is
still messed up by the manacles of segregation and by the chains of discrimination. The Negro
lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One
hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds
himself an exile in his own land. As I was reading through his speech I noticed that he kept
saying One hundred years later the Negro; I think that his main focus was to target the black
people that are still under oppression and that that must change for the black people.
Ive also noticed that in his speech, he uses examples of symbolism to help him tell the
audience that there should be equality between all races. A clear example that Martin Luther
King uses in his speech is when he is comparing the sacred obligation that America had given
to the black people as a black check which is insufficient funds. Dr. King is basically saying that
has given a lot of promises to black people but those promises are empty.
In Dr. Kings speech, there are a lot of examples of symbolism throughout his speech and
he is connecting with the audience show an appeal of emotion and logic. He is basically saying
that America had all of these chances and opportunities but yet, he believes that those are empty
and just are words with no meaning. When he stated to his audience that he refuses to believe
that bank of justice is bankrupt, he uses anaphora again saying that he will not believe that
there are insufficient funds in the great vault of opportunity of this nation. Throughout his
speech, there are a lot of demonstrations of some sort of call to action, telling the audience to get
up and demonstrate their freedom. When Dr. King said that real the promise of democracy and
it is time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial
justice , I think he is giving an emotion appeal to the audience telling them the time is over to
stay in the dark shadows if segregation.