I Have A Dream

- lessons drawn

Lessons from the speech

• Anaphora

• Repetition of themes

• Appropriate quotations or allusions

• Specific examples to ground your arguments

• Metaphors

Lesson #1 - Anaphora

• repeating words at the beginning of two or more successive sentence is a commonly used rhetorical device.

AnaphoraBut one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

Sets the

pattern

Emphasisesthe pattern

Rhetorical effect

Lesson #2 - Repetition

• repeat Key “Theme” words throughout your speech

What are some of the commonly repeated words in the speech?

Lesson #2 - Repetition

Consider these commonly repeated words:

• freedom (20 times) • we (30 times), our (17 times), you (8 times) • nation (10 times), america (5 times), american (4 times) • justice (8 times) and injustice (3 times) • dream (11 times)

Lesson #3: Appropriate Quotations or Allusions• evoking historic and literary references is a powerful speechwriting technique

• executed explicitly (a direct quotation) or implicitly (allusion)

What are some allusions referred to in the speech?

Lesson #3: Appropriate Quotations or AllusionsPara Allusions Effect2 “Five score years ago…” refers

to Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address speech which began “Four score and seven years ago…”

This allusion is particularly poignant given that King was speaking in front of the

Lincoln Memorial. 4 “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of

Happiness” a reference to the United States Declaration of Independence.

Biblical allusions

Lesson #4: Use Specific Examples• to ground arguments• to illustrate logical arguments

Geographic references Effect Mississippi (mentioned on 4 separate occasions)

mentioning Mississippi would evoke some of the strongest emotions and

images for his audience. “slums and ghettos of our northern

cities” [paragraph 14]

“the South” [25]

“From every mountainside” [40]

“from every village and every hamlet” [41]

Make his message more inclusive

Lesson #4: Use Metaphors• associate speech concepts with concrete images and emotions• to highlight the contrast between two abstract concepts, associate them with contrasting concrete metaphors. Abstract concept Concrete metaphor

segregation vs racial justice dark and desolate valley (of segregation) and sunlit path (of racial justice.)