I Have a Dream

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I Have a Dream

• by Martin Luther king, Jr.

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• Negro spiritual

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Building vocabulary

• A.

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Understanding the writers ideas

• 1. Lincoln.
• 2. The lack of freedom and the manifold
  inequality suffered by African Americans.
• 3. The Constitution and Declaration of
  Independence were a promissory note for all
  future generations of Americans, but this promise
  has been denied to the Negro people (pars. 3
  4). King has brought his followers to Washington
  to cash this check and demand the riches freedom
  and the security of justice.

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Understanding the writers ideas

• 4. This is not for gradualism, he says, no time
  to put off what has long been left undone. Action
  is required immediately.
• 5. To refrain from hatred, violence, and
  stereotyping of all white people as racistsbut
  not to rest satisfied until justice is done.
• 6. He turns the argument on its head, saying the
  Negro people can never be satisfied with
  inequality and injustice (par. 7).

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Understanding the writers ideas

• 7. Despite the challenges and the obstacles, King
  retains the hope that the promise of freedom and
  equality for all in America will be fulfilled.
• 8. By identifying his dream with the American
  dream and associating his cause with the words of
  the anthem, My country tis of thee. He also
  embraces all Americans and all parts of
  Americanorth and south, Catholics and
  Protestants, etc.

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Understanding the writers ideas

• 9. To return to the keynote, to emphasize to
  others that is a Negro cause and to draw in
  conclusion on the deepest sources of Negro
  feeling and belief.

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 1. Intended as an inspirational address, the
  speech uses repetition and highly metaphorical
  figures of speech far more than would be
  appropriate in expository prose (e.g. seared in
  the flames of withering injustice, par. 1 from
  the dark and desolate valley of segregation to
  the sunlit path of racial justice, par. 4).

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 2. Slavery was an economic arrangement insofar
  as full emancipation cannot be achieved without
  economic equality, the cash metaphor is
  appropriate.
• 3. The Old Testament centers significantly on the
  sorrow of the Jews in their exile.
• 4. Kings thesis has two parts. First, he wants
  to say generally why the March on Washington has
  occurred we have come here today to dramatize
  an appalling condition (par. 2).

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 4. Second, he wants to emphasize the necessary
  conclusion in thought that this dramatization
  leads to When we let freedom ringwe will be
  able to speed up that day when all of Gods
  children (can say) Free at last! (par. 27).

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 5. The immediate audience, clearly, is the one in
  front of him at the Lincoln Memorial (we have
  come here par. 2). He alludes, too, to militant
  tendencies with in the Civil Rights movement (We
  must not allow our creative protest to degenerate
  into physical violence, par. 6), and to those
  urging gradualism or mocking him with being never
  satisfied (par. 7). At the close, in invoking the
  grand American tradition of democracy, he appeals
  beyond the immediate to all right thinking
  Americans (pars. 20-27).

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 6. By appeal to their religious convictions and
  by making the present travail of the Negro
  analogous to the familiar biblical stories of
  injustice and suffering. By rousing language,
  especially repetition. By frequent allusion to
  eloquent passages in the literary or popular
  tradition (Shakespeare, for example). By invoking
  the emotive touchstones of the national
  traditionGettysburg Address, My country, tis
  of thee, etc.

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 7. To be certain that those not familiar with the
  exact words hear them, and to be able to draw on
  the phrase, Let freedom ring. He wants to
  embrace all of the country, every corner,
  including the darkest, most backward, most
  staunchly racist corner Mississippi.
• 8. Modulation of language and tone to address his
  audience. Refutation (par. 7). Analogy. Analysis
  (par. 2)

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Understanding the writers techniques

• 9. Repetition is one of Kings device to move his
  audience.
• 10. They not only capture the main point of the
  essay but frame it in the words of a source
  deeply rooted in the emotional and cultural
  traditions of his audience.