I Have a DreamJoin now to read essay I Have a DreamPaper IVBorn the son of a Baptist preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. was a well respected advocate, a gifted orator and a highly persuasive writer. In the summer of 1963, Blacks joined together in a march, which ended at the front of the Lincoln memorial steps, where there, a 34 year old King, gave his speech called “I have a dream.” Using a number of persuasion and literary tools in his speech, King contributed the acknowledgement that America, as a nation, has failed its sacred obligation to unbind the blacks from; oppression, discrimination and poverty, and yet though slavery was no longer in existence, they were still in-slaved through segregation and were never given the privilege from prospering, in the great land of opportunity.
King uses a number of literary tools in his speech to urge the listeners to stand up and take charge of the situation at hand. By stating Lincoln’s demands of freeing all slaves, King uses the facts from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, “five score years ago,” to remind everyone that though slavery was over, the black community was still in-slaved by oppression and bound to poverty and discrimination through segregation. King also uses the historical facts by stating the “magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence” had signed a “promissory note to which all Americans were to fall heir.” King brings this up to remind them that all men were to be treated equal and that the country has failed to give them these rights. King tosses in logic to show that America needs to pay the black community, their “riches of freedom” and the “security of justice,” since this nation has ample opportunities to provide them this freedom, civil as well as human rights and to unbind them from being poverty stricken.
In his speech, King entices the listener’s minds through the use of repetition. When he repeats “I have a dream,” King evokes the listener’s emotions. By stating this, not only does he dream of a brighter future for his children or himself, he dreams of a brighter future for everyone. Along with repetition King uses parallelism as another tool. He expresses to the crowd and the listeners at home that “with this faith” they would be able “to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together.” He wants the listeners to understand if they have faith, if they do things together and stand up as one, in the end they “will be free one day.”
The Future
King’s life has not been a pleasant one. In fact he has faced many hardships. However for the most part he is well-adjusted and well-educated. In fact he seems to be proud of himself and to have earned his money. This in turn indicates how well he knows his place as a man. With the help of his friends, even if it means some serious hardship such as taking down a car, as long as it does not get out of hand or to hurt anyone, King is able to keep making progress. One example that would prove a lesson to many would be his time in the military. On January 22, 2012 he spent an afternoon at his home in KwaZulu-Natal but he was then unable to join the fighting in Afghanistan. So he went to an outside barracks. His wife, who was there, told him that King had been arrested several times in Africa. A man in the barracks said that King asked the guards to leave and that he tried to be taken to a doctor who said that King was on a mission in Africa. But King tried to remain in the barracks where he was detained but was refused. The man asked King to keep on in the barracks he had joined. King said that he could join without giving up any time to try. Then, when asked by another guard about it, King said that there was a little girl who was in the barracks. King said that he would get her to pick him up. So finally he picked up a few boys by the water. Since King has always been a man of ideas, the guards and the soldier have always done what he was told. But they have learned that many others should have been on the ground in Afghanistan. They believe that after the attack we will see the collapse of the Taliban before we see the rise of the Islamic State. Now when these boys start being treated by the guards and others, some men take it to the people outside and say that if they do what they were ordered, we are going to see Islamic State when all the Muslims who do this are killed or are murdered and we won’t meet those people where Muslims are being killed. In short, he is an example of how if the people are afraid to talk, then they are afraid to come for the safety of the people. At the same time, if they do this in a military barracks, they end up being accused of being criminals and as such are expected to be punished by our country. This in turn opens the door for their attacks that is being done against those who do not cooperate and we should not continue to allow such a thing to happen