Tuesday, August 13, 2013

What parts of speech in the classical rhetoric arrangement can be found in Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech?

Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech certainly does contain all of the parts of speech found in the classical rhetorical arrangement. Two of those parts include the introduction and narration.

In his speech, King opens with a very clear introduction in which he thanks the multitude for joining him on that historical day and provides background information supporting their fight for freedom. He provides background information by referencing the Emancipation Proclamation and by alluding to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in which Lincoln promoted the Civil War as a fight to end slavery. King alludes to the Gettysburg Address by opening his own speech with the phrase "[f]ive score years ago," meaning 100 years ago, to reference when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, only two months after the Battle of Gettysburg, whereas Lincoln opened his own Gettysburg Address with the phrase "[f]our scour and seven years ago" to reference the start of the American Revolution. In opening with "[f]ive score years ago," King draws a parallel between his own speech calling for freedom and Lincoln's. By referencing the Emancipation Proclamation, he reminds the nation that his people are owed their freedom.

He next moves into his narration to make a firm declaration of the problem at hand by saying, "But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free." He continues to describe the problem by speaking of the poverty of the African-American people. His next two paragraphs continue to be part of his narration. In these two paragraphs, he elaborates on the problem by speaking of what the American people still owe the African-American people, specifically the guarantee of the "'unalienable rights' of 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'" He further uses these two paragraphs to assert that his people are gathered there, at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to demand what is owed to them.

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