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I Have a Dream

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Submitted By tralace69
Words 1110
Pages 5
Turner Estes
English 152
Thornhill
9/29/15
Justice for All The author of the “I Have a Dream” speech is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., King is well known for his efforts during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. Throughout King’s speech, he uses numerous rhetorical devices to connect to his audience to influence change in the minds of black and white Americans about equal rights. The speech was intended for a very wide variety of people and was given in Washington to possibly influence politicians. Throughout King’s, “I Have a Dream”, speech he uses purposeful repetition, alliteration, and imagery to connect with the audience on an emotional level to realize America has fallen short of its promises.
Throughout Dr. King’s speech he gave in Washington D.C. he used vivid imagery to give his audience of over two hundred-thousand people a visual concept of the message he gave. This is a very powerful rhetorical device because it connects the audience by putting a visual image in their heads. In this quote King uses the words dark and valley as he tries to express how the current state of racism across America, “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” The word dark typically describes a place of little or no light and people typically do not like that. The word valley is a low place that is typically a hard spot to get out of and people don’t like being trapped either. So by King using a dark valley to describe the segregation that was occurring across America it is a very emotional use of imagery that is not easily forgettable. King hits the audience with the image of a sunlit path that strategically gives hope and a way out of the metaphorical valley. In this quote King encourages his audience to not stop until equality is obtained in America for every race, “This sweltering summer of the

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