Diction

 **Diction**



=== In the early 1950's through the late 1960's, civil right movements flared up throughout the United States. Martin Luther King Jr., an activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement, gave his "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963. Today, it is viewed as a rhetorical masterpiece. In addition to King's own vivid rhetoric, he incorporated several carefully chosen historic and literary references to make his speech more powerful and to help to build his case.

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=**Logos:**=

King’s portrayal of logos was one technique that he made excellent usage of in his speech. One example of this is when he alluded to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in his speech. It's logical that he would use those documents to back up his case because it is clearly stated in both documents that all humans should have equal rights.

=**Allusions:**=

The allusions that King makes in his speech to important documents such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and biblical allusions help support his arguments effectively.

This is an allusion to President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address that was issued in regards to the great casualties that the Union suffered during the Battle of Gettysburg in the late 1800’s during the Civil War and also to urge the people to keep fighting for their cause. The speech began with “Four score and seven years ago…” This allusion especially made an impact because Martin Luther King read “I Have A Dream” in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
 * //“Five score years ago…”//** [paragraph 2]

This is an allusion to the Declaration of Independence. This allusion to the Declaration of Independence is poignant for several different reasons. In the Declaration of Independence, it is used to state to the King of England that humans have three unalienable rights that should never be taken away from them, and those are the right to live, the right to have freedom, and the right to be happy by accommodating for themselves. King used the allusion to state that all humans have these rights. All men, not only white men, were guaranteed to have them.
 * //“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”//** [and the rest of paragraph 4]

In closing, he made an allusion to //**"the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"**// He makes this allusion to add pathos to the speech, also because he wants all people to be free from the "chains of oppression".

As we all know, Martin Luther King Jr. was a clergyman, so it is only logical that he would use numerous Biblical allusions provide of the moral basis for his arguments:

He uses this to allude to when slaves were emancipated. This would also be appealing to the audience members who had family that had been slaves sometime in the past.
 * //“It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”//** [paragraph 2] alludes to Psalms 30:5 “For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.“

cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.“ He uses this allusion to tell African-Americans and people of other races that have been oppressed to bear no hatred for people that have been treating them unjustly,
 * //“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”//** [paragraph 8] evokes Jeremiah 2:13 “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out

=**Rhetorical Shift**=


 * A rhetorical shift is seen early on in King's speech. At the beginning he starts off by referring to the Emancipation Proclamation in the optimistic point of view in which African-Americans had viewed it as, at the time. The rhetorical shift is seen when he transfers on to the third paragraph and starts off by saying "//But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free//" and he continues on for a few paragraphs to explain how the white populace has been oppressing their human rights.


 * In paragraph 14, he elaborates on how African-Americans have been oppressed in American society. Here his tone shifts to a commanding and urgent tone. He begins to speak of changes that must occur in society

=**Rhetorical Structure**= The style which King used in the deliverance of his speech was very unique.


 * At the beginning of his speech the arrangement of his words were subtle and diplomatic at first and then later he began to use more powerful and aggressive words towards the end by making use of the rhetorical device, pathos and intertwining imagery, to transmit his passionate feelings to the audience.
 * He gradually began to shed some light on the problems that his people were facing on paragraph 14 and 15.


 * He speaks in a uplifting tone that things will change for the better if the people of all races work together to make his dream a reality.


 * For the rest of the speech, he speaks about his hopes for the people of America. Here he incorporates repetition by repeating "I have a dream...", by repeating this he is beating this into his audience's mind because he continues this train of thought until the end of the speech.