"I Have a Dream" Speech

Parallelism involves using similar structures for two or more parts of a sentence or sentences to create a comparison or pattern. One example in the "I Have a Dream Speech" is the four sentences...

Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most often studied, cited, and referenced speeches in American history. While it’s true that some of its appeal is derived from the...

Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech utilizes numerous persuasive rhetorical techniques, among them parallelism and repetition. One good example of both is towards the end of the...

The 'I Have A Dream' speech was what I like to call 'an alignment of what was possible in the face of the immpossible. Although the 'March on Washington' was created by CORE and SNCC neither of...

An antithesis can be illustrated by juxtaposing two arguments which oppose each other. It can also be illustrated by a contrast of oppositional ideas such as "Give me liberty or give me death"...

There are many examples of repetition in Martin Luther King Junior's "I Have a Dream" speech. The repetition serves as emphasis. Since the speech was given orally, the repetition also helps the...

Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech," delivered on the National Mall on August 28, 1963—one of the most (if not the most) powerful statements on the urgency of equality and civil rights for...

If an image is a mental picture that is constructed, then it's fair to say that many of Dr. King's images in the "I Have a Dream" speech are a reflection of a world of what can be as opposed to...

I think that if we can choose one sentence of this speech that represents its main, central claim, it would be the following sentence from the sixth paragraph: This sweltering summer of the...

In his "I Have A Dream" speech, Martin Luther King navigates the tricky task of addressing both white and black audiences. To achieve this, the speech has a tripartite structure. The first part of...

Speaking during the march on Washington, D.C. in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. claims that African Americans have come to the nation's capital to cash "a promissory note," a note that must be...

In a very practical sense, the audience consisted of those who gathered around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC in 1963 in an effort to support the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom....

Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream Speech" is known for its skillful, impactful use of rhetorical devices. These devices are used to connect with listeners on an emotional level and...

The first argument that King opens with is historical: African Americans have been promised liberties through various historical documents and proclamations which have never come to fruition. King...

There is a more radical aspect to King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Though its primary message is one of true reconciliation, it directly addresses the persistent degradation of many black people,...

Unfulfilled Promises The Emancipation Proclamation established that all slaves could enjoy new freedom. The Declaration of Independence guarantees unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the...

First, I'd like to agree that this kind of repetition comes from the vibrancy and imagistic richness of traditional black preaching. However, in this instance, the series of repetitions begins with...

In addition to the metaphors noted in other answers, King repeatedly relies on a variety of figurative language devices, giving his speech a deeply poetic cadence. For example, he uses repetition...

The “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the most famous pieces of oratory in American history. Particularly famous is the section in which King proclaims his dreams: I...

Martin Luther King uses logos throughout the speech. He says that the words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence make promises of freedom and equality to all Americans, and it is...

King's "I Have a Dream" speech is full of literary and historical allusions. One of the most famous ones which pervades the speech is to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which...

In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used the metaphor of an island and a lonely sea to emphasize how African Americans were set apart from the rest of society. They did not...

In his famous and frequently quoted "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his view of the "American Dream" clear. To him, the American dream is one of equality for all people....

King addresses both black people and white people in his "I Have a Dream Speech." He tells white people that for a hundred years they have been promising black people equal access to the American...

Martin Luther King was, first and foremost, a pastor, and his delivery is in precisely the dramatic, carefully paced, and modulated style one would expect from a charismatic preacher of the 1950s...

In paragraph 14, Martin Luther King is addressing the black and white activists in the audience who came to the March on Washington. Tribulations are sufferings or persecutions. King specifically...

In his speech at the March on Washington, best known for his "dream," King described the United States as having "defaulted" on a "promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned."...

King mentions many parts of the United States in his "I Have a Dream" speech. This is meant to be sure that his audience realizes that the entire country has made equality a dream deferred for...

In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. refers to Abraham Lincoln as the “great American.” Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today,...

King's dream was the dream of racial equality: an America where whites and blacks possess the same opportunities and rights. He discusses the abolition of slavery some one hundred years prior, but...

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the culmination of the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. In it, he refers to acts of injustice against African Americans in...

Early in the speech, King directly mentions the Declaration of Independence, which, along with the Constitution, he describes as a "promissory note." He means that when the United States came into...

Beginning with his rhetorical repetition of "I have a dream," two effective vocal strategies Martin Luther King, Jr. uses in his "I Have a Dream" speech are pause and pitch inflection.Effective...

King's main message in the "I Have A Dream" speech is that African Americans have not yet received the rights to which they, as Americans, are entitled. He essentially summarizes this point early...

Martin Luther King Jr. gave three pieces of advice to black people in his speech "I Have A Dream." He admonished them to never meet violence with violence, he encouraged them to continue to hope,...

When Martin Luther King, Jr., named so many separate states in his speech, he not only connected with his audience, but he also subtly advocated for a federal solution to the problem of racial...

King is clearly referring to Abraham Lincoln. His "symbolic shadow" can be understood several ways. In the first place, King and his audience, gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.,...

To summarize this great speech in three lines, compress the different sections into key points. The first few paragraphs say, essentially, Abraham Lincoln promised everyone in the United States...

The metaphors that Dr. King uses in his speech to describe the condition of African- Americans at the time of the March on Washington have multiple layers. One such dimension was the fact that Dr....

Martin Luther King Jr. employs metaphorical language when he says, Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. King refers...

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. His speech was pivotal because it brought civil rights...

(eNotes editors may only answer one question per response. If you need more specific answers, please resubmit more questions.) Dr. King's audience for the "I Have a Dream" speech was motivated...

Martin Luther King, Jr., predicts that "There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights." There cannot be peace as long as the promise of...

In his well-known "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr., employs language that is compelling and filled with both figurative language and rhetoric to urge his readers to believe in a...

In order to answer this question, you simply need to look at the words of Dr. King’s speech. He clearly lays out what he sees as evidence that African Americans were not free. Here is the...

I think it's really difficult to compose this particular aspect of the assignment. In all honesty, I would be hard- pressed to find one part, not to speak of more than one, area that is weak. It...

One reason Mississippi is referenced is because it represents the very essence of Southern segregation. There are few places that were more intent on keeping "the Southern way of life" in terms of...

According to an illuminating article by The Guardian, this was not the first time time Martin Luther King had used the words "I have a dream" in a speech. However, it was the first time he was...

In the August 23, 1963 speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, "the American Dream" denotes the opportunity and freedom of every man and woman, regardless of race, color, or creed, to be able to achieve...

The speech "I Have a Dream," delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, is a call for economic and social equality between Black and White Americans, and freedom from racist laws and threats of...