Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
CMST 220
Erin Davison
12-08-17
Only 15 minutes were enough for Martin Luther King to perform one of the
most valuable discursive gems in the recent history. His words have adhered to the
minds of almost every American and beyond. It was a warm afternoon of summer
in Washington DC. It looked as if Martin Luther King and his crew have had a plan
to perform the impressive discourse with the perfect conditions around them to
succeed. There is no perfect speech, but it is very opportune, clear and capable of
influencing the belief system of its audience and its environment, as happened with
this speech. He uses logical arguments with credibility and appealing to the
emotions of the demonstrators. The words written in his piece of paper were felt
not only by their ears that have listened them, but for their skin that has felt the hot
weather and the recent circumstances after the exhaustive march to associate the
metaphors he has used. Also their eyes, that have seen the perfect location under
the shadow of the Lincoln monument, and the way how Luther King uses the
expressions of his face to feel the words while they are coming out of his mouth.
This speech accomplishes the possible main objective planned by Martin Luther
racism, but in a peaceful way, and demonstrate that there is a more effective way
to change things. It is with the transformation of ideologies and not with violence.
To start, Martin Luther king performs his speech using different strategies to
give more importance to his arguments. For example, he uses metaphors in a way
to make easier to understand some concepts that may be difficult to understand
and contrast them with their counterpart. Like when he compares a check with
insufficient funds with the pending debt since Lincoln, but he gives hope while
saying that the bank of justice cant be in bankrupt. Also, King repeats the
arguments, like one hundred years later emphasizing the struggle of the negro
people being victims of rejection and abandonment. This part at the beginning is
particularly important to give the context and bring back the memories of what has
happened since slavery. Another example of repetition happens with now is the
time when he encourages change and looking for justice. By repeating the ideas
or part of those, makes easier to stuck them in the mind of people for further
remembrance. Besides this, King reinforces the concept of equality matching the
white and black people as a community with possible two objectives. The black
people may feel with purpose in life for the change and with the potential to
increase their status in the society. Also, it helps to dissuade the potential violent
people to start a rebellion after the potent speech because they will think that all
are the same. King is very accurate to emphasize his message of pacific rebellion.
Furthermore, one other important aspect of Martin Luther Kings logic is by locating
his arguments. This means that he mentions a lot of locations along the United
states to involve the people from each area to be part of the movements and to
In a like manner, Mr. King shows a lot of credibility while performing his
speech. To start, he has been fighting in favor of the civil rights movements as a
minister that has become a politician with the passage of time. Usually, religious
people are trustable and peaceful. He takes advantage of his knowledge of the
bible to use or adapt some passages in his speech. Another way to show himself
uses facts of the public domain, quotes of the Constitution and description of
verifiable events. Like when he said: "a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote." That was
actually happening. In that form the average person can understand what he was
saying and doesnt have to be well educated to catch the essence of the words. In
addition, he shows his trustworthiness while he is very secure of his words, and
despite that most of the speech was read, he tries to face the audience and shows
them confidence. In fact Mr. King performs the most emotive part of the speech
when he estates his famous I have a dream looking at the people all the time and
showing a more emotional face. He doesnt read that part because is the
memorabilia of it. That part is what even today people repeat, even if they dont
know the context of the situation. Finally, he uses a language that sounds almost
poetical for the closure of the speech, like if he was performing a worship at
church.
unraveling cases of racial discrimination that was lived in the United States in those
times. He reaches some conclusions calling for action and expressing the negative
consequences that will have to ignore their demands: "It would be fatal for the
Nation to ignore the urgency of the moment," and the following ideas, with a call to
hope: "This situation will change". He reaches the height of the speech in the
famous passage "I have a dream", with final phrases in which he makes a song of
everyone feels involved and identified. This is an emotional speech based on the
reality and context of the time. The foundation thoughts of this discourse come
from hope as the engine of each sentence and idea. It is brief, but potent. The
resources used to give logic was built based on metaphors, analogies and
mixture of deep thoughts expressed in simple words. The innovative tone, the
his time. He is always strong but promoter of unity and common good. Overall, As
he said in a following speech when he received the Nobel prize in 1964. We have
learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned
the simple art of living together as brothers. Martin Luther King dedicated himself