Martin Luther King Analysis

II. Rhetorical Structure: Figures of Speech

1. alliteration: use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verseallusion: An instance of indirect referencemetaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblancesimile: A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as

2. “Five score years ago” is an allusion to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation freeing negroes from the hands of their slave owner, yet 100 years later the African American community is not truly free and still suffer from injustice.

3. Life, liberty and pursuit for happiness allude to the declaration of independence. Jews and Gentiles allude to the bible.

4. Alliteration- Sweltering shadow, Sweltering summer

5. Metaphor- “Let us not satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

6. Simile- “Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

7a. Metaphor with the enhancement of imagery

7b. It gives a divine opportunity to bring the audience and the speaker to a level of understanding of racism. It also serves a purpose in reaching the subconscious mind and brings to life the abstractness of segregation an discrimination.

7c. Despite all the battle fought, and all the lives lot for this pursuit of freedom for African Americans, justice still remains in the shadow of their existence. 100 years later and the fight for equal rights is being fought as though for the first time.

8. Let freedom ring, With this faith

9. It brings to life the vision of his dream. The level to how passionate and repeated it is through his text also signifies his desire of pursuit that indeed this dream will come true.

10. Illustrations of a future dream and believe painted through Dr. King’s speech enhances his believe of a better and brighter day. Of all his creative images of a new day, description of demonstrating little black boys and black girls walking hand in hand stands out as the most righteous. 100 years before, that was the dream of the Negroes who thought were free from the bondage of captivity. 100 years after, the negroes still find themselves in the same predicament. Knowing this should be a discouragement, however, King still preaches this notion of a new beginning for future generation. Though children of different race didn’t walk in hand in the past, and are not in the present, he still prophesies for the future.

III. Understanding the Dream

1. Nothing is impossible for those who are willing to behold. Life doesn’t offer all its pleasant ideals and opportunities in a handful and allows all inhabitants to take part in. However, it gives to all those who are willing to make the step and strive to take the blessing and fruitfulness in that handful of opportunities and ideas. Though all created under the same sun and moon, judgment lays in the eyes of the beholder, and from these beholders result those they consider outcasts. However, the outcast can always rise and take the lead in anything they put their minds to. In the battle of race, discrimination, and suffering injustice, dreaming a brighter day is the remedy for all those in captivity. Dwelling in the past and hatred resurrects pain, but willingness of a change makes everything anew.

2. Police brutality, and beatings, as well as persecution

3. The American dream exemplifies what many have come to believe accompanies happiness. It’s evaded with so much glory that it lacks to speak of its downfalls. Though many escape to pursue this dream however, it fails to mention that with this dream comes pain accompanying and tears.

4. In every corner of the U.S lies states that are also victims of injustice. By naming all these states, it gives readers a brighter sense to see the vast population and people suffering from discrimination.

5. A cry for help is eventually heard when it reaches the ears of the people. King’s speech was a vast cry for his people, thus anyone in the crowd would have been easily affected. The fact that it was a cry for the audience, makes it all so attentive to the ears of the listeners.

IV. Relating to the dream

1. A hindrance and enslavement that keeps the mind in an embodiment that it cannot raise from captivity.

2a. Hatred doesn’t fail to infect every part of the body. Once it touches the mind, it fails no other mental state of its victim. King said in his speech that his people should not drink from the cup of hatred. His words serve as evidence from the action of the ku Klux clan. Whether their actions were wrong or just, it was dominated by hatred, thus ruling their hearts and causing them to do the things that they did.

2b. Hatred mixed with more hatred blooms an endless filled of destruction. It devastates. Responding with violence meant the loss of lives and the loss of lives meant that by the time the African American community had reached their aim of freedom, there will be none of them alive to enjoy it.

3. Ignorance is a sin, and one thing future generation lack to demonstrate is their sense of ignorance. Future generations are aware of what persecution and destruction brings upon the land and its people. They are quite aware of the nature of allowing oneself to fall in the hands of hatred and deceit. Thus, groups such as the “skin heads” have no power.

4. King’s dream has bloomed to what is viewed beautiful in the eyes of the African American community. There is a saying in the bible that even in the grave Jesus was still God as he was able to resurrect on the third day as he said he would. Even in the grave, King’s dream continues to live in the life of future generations. You don’t have to see works of action, its even noticeable in the eye of those who share the same believe as King. The death of an individual is no necessary the death of his dream. As long as that dream is instilled in those who will move on and believe with the same fire and believe as the original dreamer, Nothing is ever lost, but will continually be gained.