Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream - Essay Example

Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream The Martin Luther king speech during the fight for equality in the United States of America is arguably one of the most touching speeches ever told by someone in the world. Martin Luther king employs several characters of an example of a person with the best communication in terms of speech. First, martin Luther King argues his points out by emphasizing his point of having a better America. In several first sentences, he starts by saying, “I have a dream”. In many occasions during the speech, he narrates with various tonal variations on how the how Negros or the black people have been mistreated in the past years. For instance, he starts his speech by saying, “One hundred year later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (Incomeexperts, 2012). In his speech, he also states a number of times on the way he dreams of for equality in the United States of America. King argues that, “I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” (Incomeexperts, 2012). Martin Luther King goes further to point produce documents, which he uses to emphasize his argument. In addition, he explains to his audience on how the Emancipation Proclamation document was a milestone in the wake of equality in the United States of America Negros. The then president, Abraham Lincoln, signed this document statement, which set free the slaves in many states. These were among the first signs of the black minority getting their rights. He goes even further to mention about the United States Constitution to emphasize his point on how his dream his of equality could be realized. Through emphasize of many of his introductory words, king puts his audience in a position to remember what they heard about the speech. This is one of the characteristics of a good speech presentation; moreover, the voice of martin Luther king is sophisticated. This is seen through his use of descriptive words with these words he gives his audience the view of how they are being treated and what he dreams about. Furthermore he use other descriptive styles like metaphors to give the audience a better understanding of his speech, for example he says, “America has given the Negro a bad check, which has come back marked 'insufficient funds” (Incomeexperts, 2012) Martin Luther king uses repetition, which is a good speech presentation, throughout his speech. He cleverly repeats key theme words in his speech to drive his point home to the audience. Since martin Luther king was addressing people during the struggle for equality, he understood well what he was up to and, therefore, went ahead to repeat, the major points of his theme for equality. For example, in his speech one is able to identify quickly the repetition of word like freedom, dream, nation, justice, injustice and we. These words form a critical role in bringing the point of equality and present the audience with a good understanding of the speech. King also employs another great technique of speech presentation, that of quotation and allusion. From the beginning of his speech and throughout the entire speech, he uses several direct and indirect quotations. For example in his introductory words, he start by saying, “…five score years ago...” this is an indirect quotation of Abraham Lincoln use of similar words sometime back. This is clearly an allusion of other people words or statement to familiarize you audience on what you want to tell them. This was also a good timing for the words since martin Luther king was addressing his audience in front of Lincoln’s memorial park. Use of allusion in speech is one way of making the audience feel familiar with what you are talking about and reduces the chances of the audience not understanding the theme or the topic of the speech. In martin Luther kings’ speech, one is able to see clearly good use of specific examples that brings about the logical argument of the speech. In this speech, Martin Luther king is able to use specific geographical example like Alabama, Georgia, New York and Mississippi to make the audience familiar with the topic. These specific examples were also used to explain more on how serious his dream was since some states or locations like Mississippi had been worst hit by the problem of inequality whereby the black-Americans were being oppressed. In some cases, king went ahead to give some specific situations and locations in the United States where by the black were facing the problem of inequality. This includes his mentions of, “…slums and ghettos of our northern cities”, “from every village and hamlet” (Incomeexperts, 2012). This evoked more emotions from the audience since this is where most of the Negros or the black Americans lived. In a writing of a good essay one must consider the use of a language that would not raise many questions and arguments, which would eventually lead you to into wrong hands or even prosecution. Although martin Luther king was among the fearless black Americans of that time, he did not use offensive or direct attacking words in his speech. These reduced the chances of him being caught up by the hands of the law and therefore escape the wrath of being jailed .the issue of equality at that time in the United States of America was a thorny issue and therefore he had to choose his words with a lot of care to avoid committing more crimes. This speech shows a wide range of use of metaphors to highlight contrasting concepts. Again, this is a speech writing and presentations techniques that assist when presenting or writing a speech with sensitive issue or theme. For example, in this speech, martin Luther king says, “…this sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality” (Incomeexperts, 2012). In this statement, King contrasts the sweltering summer to the invigorating autumn of freedom and equality, although the message is so sensitive the manner in which it is presented itself does not depict the real intensity of the message, as it may sound somehow provocative in one way or the other. In conclusion, this speech is a cumulative description of various ways and techniques that can be employed a speech. In this speech, various aspects of speech are employed thereby making it easy for the intended theme to be understood by the audience. This is evidently seen in the video whereby the audience clapped at various points and chanted when they felts about how they are being treated. It brought out various emotions during the speech and some points the audience seemed to agree to his words (seen by clapping and saying yes by the audience). Work Cited Incomeexperts. Dr. Martin Luther King "I Have A Dream" Speech (August 28, 1963). Jan 16, 2012. Web. 11 July 2012. Read More