2. Analysis of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" His soaring rhetoric demanding racial justice and an integrated society the black community ,and is as familiar to subsequent generations of Americans as the US Declaration of Independence. His words proved to be a touchstone for understanding the social and political upheaval of the time and gave the nation a vocabulary to express what was happening.
3. In the speech is that all people are created equal and, although not the case in America at the time, King felt it must be the case for the future. He argued passionately and powerfully
4. What were his compositional strategies and techniques? Certainly King’s speech was well researched. In preparation he studied the Bible, The Gettysburg Address and the US Declaration of Independence and he alludes to all three in his address. Stylistically the speech has been described as a political treatise, a work of poetry, and a masterfully delivered and improvised sermon, bursting with biblical language and imagery. As well as rhythm and frequent repetition, alliteration is a hallmark device, used to bang home key points.
5. The format is simple – always an aid to memorability! It falls into two parts. The first half portrays not an idealised American dream but a picture of a seething American nightmare of racial injustice. The second half of the speech paints the dream of a better, fairer future of racial harmony and integration
6. The most famous paragraph carries the theme “I have a dream” and the phrase is repeated constantly to hammer home King’s inspirational concepts ‘I Have A Dream’ has been widely acclaimed as a rhetorical masterpiece. What is Rhetoric? It is the “art of enchanting the soul.” (The art of winning the soul by discourse.) At the end, The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will.”
7. ANALYSIS OF AN ABSTRACT OF THE SPEECH I HAVE A DREAM Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation but one hundred years later, we must face the tragic that the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
8. One hundred years later, the negro is still languished in the corners of America society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. I tell you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and
9. frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all me are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of the former slaves owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
10. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a dessert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of theircharacter.
11. FORMAL LINKS ANAPHORIC REFERENCE: relative pronoun “whose” is an anaphoric reference for “a great American”. (Abraham Lincoln) COHESION AND COHERENCE: sentence en past tense joined with a conjunction referring to a time expression in past tense too; crippled, languished, created, transformed, judged VERBAL FORM: Present tense: finds, have, tell.
12. CONJUNCTION: the conjunction “and” joins two noun phrases, the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination REFERENTIAL CONTEXT: “the Negro” is the object of being spoken. CATAPHORIC REFERENCE: the definite article “the” is a cataphoric reference for “Negro” PARALLELISM: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up; I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia; I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi; I have a dream that my four little children.
13. CONJUNCTION: the conjunction “and” joins two noun phrases, the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination REFERENTIAL CONTEXT: “the Negro” is the object of being spoken. CATAPHORIC REFERENCE: the definite article “the” is a cataphoric reference for “Negro” PARALLELISM: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up; I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia; I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi; I have a dream that my four little children.
14. TEMPORAL DEIXIS: “today” is a time expression. ANAPHORIC REFERENCE: “his” possessive adjective for third singular male person is an anaphoric reference for “Negro” mentioned before, himself REPETITION: One hundred years later; Dream: Dr. King used this word such a personal and deep commodity.