John Lewis 's Speech on March Washington Analysis Essay Example

In John Lewis’ address to the House of Representatives, he provokes empathy, stirs admiration, and creates a sense of duty and unity in the audience to express the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.

Lewis uses word choice to instill empathy and admiration in his audience. He describes growing up as a black man in a segregated community. When he was young, he saw “signs that said, ‘White Men, Colored Men; White Women, Colored Women; White Waiting, Colored Waiting.’” Lewis, along with the use of repetition, uses the contrast between the words “white” and “colored” to emphasize his feelings of division as a child, which in turn allows his audience to empathize with him. Then Lewis goes on to talk about Martin Luther King Jr. He repeats that King was a “good man,” and lists many admirable qualities such as King was a “God-fearing man”, “man of God”, and a “son of America”. These qualities appeal to the nationalistic and Christian values as members of the House of Representatives likely uphold these values. When describing Martin Luther King Jr, Lewis used contrasting ideas to highlight his admiration for King. He used ideas such as King “gave [people] hope in a time of hopelessness,” “[produced] light in dark places” and “had the ability to bring the dirt and the filth from under the American rug…into the open light.” These contrasting ideas highlight Lewis’ admiration for King and compels the audience to admire King too.

In his last few paragraphs, Lewis conveys a sense of duty and unity in the audience by using unifying language. Lewis in his ending paragraphs strays away from talking about MLK and starts to address the audience. He uses the words “my friend” giving the audience a feeling of companionship between him and his audience. He then goes on to emphasize that although MLK has died, the dream has not as “murder could not kill the dream of peace…could not kill the the dream of an open society…could not the kill the dream of an a Beloved Community.” The use of Lewis’ parallelism highlights the living of Martin Luther King’s ideals and movement as MLK’s movement was “too necessary [and] too right to ever die.” In the next paragraph, Lewis uses “we” and “ourselves” when calling for action as “today more than ever before we know that [King’s] message still rings in the hearts of America.” This unifies Lewis and the audience. With both the message of a movement “too necessary to die” and Lewis’ unifying language, the audience feel obligated to continue to “rededicate [themselves] to the struggle that was [King’s] struggle and continue to seek the goals that were his goals.”

Lewis expresses the importance of Martin Luther King’s legacy by provoking empathy and admiration and creating a sense of duty and unity in his audience. As without his legacy, America couldn’t be where it is today and has inspired us to improve it even further.