Analysis of Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream Speech - Essay Example

It was a primordial cry of pain, a primitive urge to be released from bondage - which materialized in the moving words and sonorous sentences that found utterance in a relatively unknown pastor more than forty years ago, on 28th August 1963, at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC: This is not a cleverly crafted political speech, but in many ways the unrestrained outpouring of the "hope that springs eternal in human breast." It does not have a subtlety in it that needs to be analyzed by the scholars, but it has a sublimity that can be felt by every person who has a longing heart.

No true poem, or any profound work of art can be subject to analysis as such; Martin Luther King's electrifying speech falls into their category. It was an expression of creativity, pure and simple; in fact, more specifiacally, it is an outcome of a very intriguing concept that King alludes to in his speech: creative suffering. Suffering transfixes the human mind. We must have all experienced it. A sharp thorn pierces our foot, and at that very instant, the whole structure of our mind, indeed our very notion of ourselves, evaporates into thin air even if only for a split second.

That space of emptiness can at times be very conducive to creative perception. It is a space that can also come into existence inside a human being by virtue of sheer empathy; a feeling for the suffering of our fellow people. This is the space from which Jesus acted and spoke, this is the space within the soul that compelled Martin Luther King too to embark on a mission to liberate the black people. Though no one generally associates creativity with Jesus Christ, his life was indeed an expression of a deep creative force.

So was the life of Martin Luther King. Jesus' life was a representation and response to the suffering of humankind. Martin Luther King's life was too, in its own way. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest - quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.

Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptiveLet us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.From the anguish and agony of the human soul is born the wellspring of creativity that seeks to take life to a new level of freedom and fulfillment.