Camille Zendzian

RA
IHAD - FC Draft #2
10/23/13
In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s empowering I Have a Dream speech delivered on the steps of
the Lincoln Memorial, he persuades Civil Rights Activists during the 1960s to continue fighting until
America is no longer suffering from segregation through a dark, oppressive introduction of the social
injustices and contrasting it with creating a bright, joyous future with ensured racial equality where a
Negro will be free at last (P 37).
Accompanied by an elaborate description of the violent journey Negros have struggled through,
Dr. Kings prospect of a bright American future builds the idea of equality for all men possible through
the Civil Rights Activists perseverance. Dr. King begins his speech with the collective pronoun we to
describe the dark past Negros have struggled through and then switches to the personal pronoun I
when illustrating a hopeful future with racial equality. This shift empowers the activists by following a
description of everything they have survived together with a statement of their personal dreams for the
future. Through these pronouns, the author is reminding his audience of the power they always had as
well as the intimate goals they may have lost sight of. King develops a sense of unity between himself
and his audience by placing the pronoun we at the beginning of the speech to strengthen their actions
as they work in harmony as a whole. To build upon this growing unity, the author changes to the
pronoun I as he lists the desirable aspects of a future only attainable through continuation of the
audiences ancestors work toward universal freedom. The usage of I is strengthened when King
speaks as a reverend, for it is his duty to speak the Word of God. Therefore, the I statements do not
refer to King personally, but rather the desires of the God a majority of the authors audience looks up
to. By playing prophet, joins his people through the religion they hold dear to their hearts. Since I does
not literally refer to the author himself but rather all those behind his cause, the use of this pronoun
personalizes the future by speaking as the audience instead of to them. Kings dreams are the same as
his followers; therefore, they simply need to join together and realize their strengths in order to abolish
segregation in America. When King shifts to the pronoun I, he repeatedly lists the optimistic ideals he
and his audience share through the hopeful connotation of their dream*s+ (P). By consecutively
repeating the word dream, the author imprints its secondary meanings of emotion, passion, and hope
into the minds of his audience. Often, dreams are a persons deepest, unspoken desires; so, as King
expresses these dreams aloud, he helps the activists to realize how personal the goal of achieving
equal rights truly is to them. He purposely uses this word with its connotations in mind to encourage the
activists endless perseverance because his goal is to persuade them to fight until segregation is
completely abolished. To increase the need to achieve this future, King follows each repetition of dream
with a juxtaposition between the past oppression Negros have experienced and a future where all races
see each other as equals. This follows the authors pattern of following a description of the past with a
telling of the future placed at the end of his speech; by doing so, King finalizes his dream by ultimately
filling his followers with a surge of power through the idea of the past to see into the future. He gives
them faith in themselves as well as in their cause. With this faith (P27) in a god-given future complete
with all their hopes and dreams, King uses anaphora to fill his audience with the power to continue
fighting to reach their goal of a racially equal America. This phrase refers to the authors previous
allusion to the Bible that says the future will be what the Lord desires. He uses this to empower his
audience by appealing to their personal connections with religion by using his authority as a reverent to
speak the Word of God. This faith in God will be a key element in reaching racial equality, King
explains to the crowd. This faith contrasts the jangling discords of our nation and a beautiful
symphony of brotherhood in an antithesis as an appeal to the audiences emotions. The author
parallels the two opposites of discords and symphony to display outright their differences. This
encourages his followers to work together in the unison of a symphony to achieve equality by helping
them see the misconduct of their violent actions in the past. Furthermore, the audience is led to see this
brotherhood as Gods desire due to the religious connotation of faith and the Bibles arguments
toward construction of brotherhood between men. Therefore, the audience sees it as their biblical duty
to fulfill this brotherhood between Negros and white men.