Martin Luther King
"I Have a Dream"
When thinking of the most effective and well known speeches in history, one of the first speeches that comes to mind is Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream." A large part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s success as an orator was due to his uses of rhetoric in his speeches. King also was able to judge the mood and tone of his audience, and was able to interact with his audience accordingly. The uses of metaphors, anaphora and his ability to interact with his audience made Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech incredibly successful.
The use of metaphors by Martin Luther King Jr. allowed him to state his point of view in a more understandable way. A metaphor is an implied comparison achieved through a figurative use of words.
English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin ...
English: Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I Have...
Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ..."Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice." In this statement king relates the current state of racial segregation to a "desolate valley." Then he describes the hopeful future of racial justice as a "sunlit path." A desolate valley, and a sunlit path, two opposites used to illustrate the difference between the current state of segregation in the United States and the more hopeful (less racist) future. "America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse
to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and...