Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”

I must confess that I had never heard MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety, or come even close to it. My initial reaction: amazing. He uses a plethora of literary devices as well as insightful syntax to produce a truly touching speech. Especially evident is his use of parallelism and repetition, both of which make the speech extremely flowing and poetic. I had never understood the publicity and constant mention of that speech until now. It actually is as good as the mainstream media makes it out to be.

As to the task of linking the speech with things that we have seen in class, it couldn’t be simpler. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a master at the art of rhetoric. In a single speech he manages to employ all three rhetorical tenses and all three forms of argument. He begins the speech with Forensic Rhetoric. He looks back at American history and criticizes all those that have oppressed and mistreated his fellow black man. He utilizes Abraham Lincoln and the founding fathers as Ethos and Logos to support his argument that black men have been discriminated against. Forensic rhetoric is a great method of laying out the basis for an argument because it provides a blame that one can build and expand upon. Forensic rhetoric naturally leads to demonstrative and deliberative rhetoric.

King then quickly comes to the present, employing Demonstrative Rhetoric to lay out a system of values. These values again pertain to the black man. They are values that contemporary society had imposed upon the black men of America—values that marginalized and segregated a huge part of the population. King describes the current situation in America, and how the black man has come to Washington, D.C. to “cash in” a check that was signed by the founding fathers of the country. That check represents liberty and equality. In this way, he begins mixing both forensic and demonstrative in order to create a Logos argument. He logically argues that if the founding fathers of the nation signed a document that gave all its citizens the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, then it is preposterous that African-American people in the United States be treated as vile members of society.

Finally, King ends the speech with the use of Deliberative Rhetoric, or rhetoric in future tense. This type of rhetoric always provides a choice, and thus promises a payoff. In King’s case, the deliberative rhetoric provides hope for the future. It provides a positive alternative for all Americans: that one day all the citizens of the United States will be able to equally share their world of peace and prosperity. This final argument employs Pathos and the stirring of human emotion. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a poetic style and an all-encompassing cry for freedom in order to bring out the sensitive side of his audience, and thus convince them that it is their right and their duty to fight for their civil liberties.