Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr's powerful Speech - Essay Example

This gave the black people of America the courage to stand up for themselves and to do what is right. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lit a fire in the hearts and souls of those people and it gave many of them the hope that they needed to continue to find equality. While he had a dream, he needed to use his speech to encourage others to also envision the goals he had and to not give up. His speech was powerful, had a motive and was memorable. It also became a major piece in history in the civil rights movement for black people, giving the people the same belief he had that they would one day become liberated from the injustices that black people in America were facing. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

wrote this speech with the intention to inspire people within his own specific race though it could be applied to other non-Caucasians to seek the same rights. He had a motive to inspire and provide courage to the people for whom he was representing to hop on the bandwagon and no longer be suppressed by the laws that were wrongly enforced against those people of race. His powerful remarks in his “I have a dream,” speech were meant to give these people something to look forward to from the perspective that what he was doing would encourage others to also fight with him to take a stand on civil rights.

He had an image of what he wanted to see done in America, he let his listeners know what that vision was and he gave the truth all within a short speech that he probably had no idea would change the course of history forever. To write this speech and then to deliver it with such intensity was what helped gain the numbers of people that he knew would help his race on their fight toward equal rights. It was not just the language but the way he said the words with such passion that would create this difference. Dr. King even started his message talking about how things were in the present day, how they had been and how they should be in accordance with civil rights and the same rights for Negros as white people.

He knew when he first began his speech, addressing his crowd with the information that he knew would be one of the greatest demonstrations ever and knowing that it would in some ways be historical. According to writer Amy Tan, she discusses in her “Mother Tongue” essay that language can be powerful. In some ways, when she delivered a speech, she found herself using monumental style phrases as well and they could be interpreted in many different ways. The phrases were not simple, using English dialect that she had learned in her English classes.

She found that when she was talking to her own mother, she was using a different style of language to speak to her mother. Her family was of Asian descent and her mother spoke in incomplete sentences and broken English. These sentences were short and to the point and uses dialect that Tan calls “expressive command.” Tan grew up with her mother’s style of speaking and though many of Tan’s own friends could not understand what her mother was saying, Tan did (Tan, 77-78). King, to get his message out, had to speak in ways that did use words creatively.

His speech is almost poetic. Others needed to understand what he was