an essay i wrote for my final, i posted it cause i'm bored.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong man with many great attributes to society. Many people followed him, through his words and physical direction. In one of his greatest known speeches, if not the greatest speeches, “I have a dream,” his strength was his persuasion. In it he has used such a great amount of repetition and anaphora; he has unburied many known, yet unfilled, promises from the past; he has also used a degree of metaphors and similes to persuade thy reader into the effect.
Repetition and anaphora is a technique that many great writers will use to lure the audience through repeating themselves. For example, in a particular paragraph of his speech, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is… One hundred years later, the Negro lives… One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing…” A great deal of anaphora is used in that paragraph. In addition to that section of his speech he also used it here in answering whether or not they (the Negro’s) shall ever be satisfied, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim…We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies… We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi…” He brings out great points there that if they are still at the “bottom”, they can’t truly be satisfied. Being at the “bottom” is not being equal and being right where they started with no satisfaction.
Using hard facts from the past helps the audience know that the speaker/writer is telling the truth and can fully believe the circumstance of the words that are spoken/written especially when it was a promise or threat. For example, “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” With those strongly spoken words he mentions in a non-direct way that the promises that were promised aren’t necessarily being lived for. The guarantee was faux. In addition he also spoke of the nations song, “Let freedom ring,” in a sense of what should be, and how it should or could be looked at with a new meaning, “ ‘ My county, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring’.” For it may be true, if all was equal, freedom would ring loud and prosperous.
King uses many metaphors. His strongest, “ America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked as ‘insufficient funds.’” He mentions that because they (again, the Negro’s) were always at the bottom and if they were sent a bad check the “whites” wouldn’t care nonetheless nor mind if they were to get a faux hope. They, being at the bottom always were shunned and lesser than the whites. In reality, the white man would rarely be sent a faux check and the Negro would. It shows that even then, after the civil war, the Negro didn’t even fall on the same page as the white man.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of strong persuasion and a belief in a right to fight non-violently mind you, for what should have been part of the foundation of America, equality.
Repetition and anaphora is a technique that many great writers will use to lure the audience through repeating themselves. For example, in a particular paragraph of his speech, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is… One hundred years later, the Negro lives… One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing…” A great deal of anaphora is used in that paragraph. In addition to that section of his speech he also used it here in answering whether or not they (the Negro’s) shall ever be satisfied, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim…We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies… We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi…” He brings out great points there that if they are still at the “bottom”, they can’t truly be satisfied. Being at the “bottom” is not being equal and being right where they started with no satisfaction.
Using hard facts from the past helps the audience know that the speaker/writer is telling the truth and can fully believe the circumstance of the words that are spoken/written especially when it was a promise or threat. For example, “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” With those strongly spoken words he mentions in a non-direct way that the promises that were promised aren’t necessarily being lived for. The guarantee was faux. In addition he also spoke of the nations song, “Let freedom ring,” in a sense of what should be, and how it should or could be looked at with a new meaning, “ ‘ My county, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring’.” For it may be true, if all was equal, freedom would ring loud and prosperous.
King uses many metaphors. His strongest, “ America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked as ‘insufficient funds.’” He mentions that because they (again, the Negro’s) were always at the bottom and if they were sent a bad check the “whites” wouldn’t care nonetheless nor mind if they were to get a faux hope. They, being at the bottom always were shunned and lesser than the whites. In reality, the white man would rarely be sent a faux check and the Negro would. It shows that even then, after the civil war, the Negro didn’t even fall on the same page as the white man.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of strong persuasion and a belief in a right to fight non-violently mind you, for what should have been part of the foundation of America, equality.