Rhetorical Analysis of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech

There are many great speeches throughout history that have had an impact on society around America. One of these great speeches is the I Have a Dream speech given by Martin Luther King Jr on August 28, 1963. King’s propose of his speech was to convince the nation of a better world that is free of segregation and discrimination. Throughout his speech, King uses persuasive appeals, different tones and rhetorical devices to create a deep connection and personal relationship to his audience while persuading them to believe in a better world.  

King uses the persuasive appeals of logos and pathos in his speech to personally make a connection with his audience. By using the persuasive appeal of logos in his speech, King is using logic and statistics to persuade his audience. King starts off his speech with the statistic that it has been one hundred years since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed with the promise that his people would be free and treated equal. This statistic shows that a promise that was made and that has been signed off on by American leaders, still hasn’t been fulfilled even after one hundred years. This shows his listeners that a signed document still has not gone into effect to help people, instead, they are ignoring it and allowing segregation and discrimination to take this documents place which isn’t logical. 

The other persuasive appeal that King uses in his speech is the appeal of pathos. King uses the appeal of pathos to emotional connect and persuade his listeners. King adds a lot of emotion in his speech, one of the biggest spots being his dream for his children, “I have a dream that 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” (King). King uses emotion to appeal to his audience to not only relate to other parents in the nation with hardships like his, but also to paint a picture for parents whose children don’t have to go through these hardships. What he is doing is telling other colored parents that he understands exactly what their children are going through and that he can relate to them, but he’s also telling white parents that they don’t understand because their children don’t have to go through these hardships and is showing them what these situations can do to affect a child. King uses emotions like this to touch the hearts of his listeners and persuade them that something needs to be done to fix this problem before it’s too late. 

Besides persuasive appeals, Kings also uses different tones in his speech to persuade his audience. King mostly uses two different tones in his speech: urgency and passion. These two tones help King capture his listeners' attention, while persuading them at the same time. King uses the tone of urgency in his speech to tell his listeners that something needs to be done to fix this problem of segregation, and it needs to be done now. He uses this tone of urgency, especially when he is talking about how long it has been since the Emancipation Proclamation has been signed, yet after a hundred years nothing has really changed. He repeats that it has been one hundred years multiple times when discussing this reptation along with the urgency in Kings voice tells his listeners that something must be done now, and it can’t wait another hundred years. 

Another tone that King uses in his speech is passion. King uses the tone of passionate in his speech to show his audience that he is serious about what he’s saying and that he honestly believes that something needs to be done. King uses this tone when he is telling about all his dreams for the future, the dreams that one day everyone can stand hand and hand without the idea of segregation or discrimination, the dreams that one day children can just be children without worrying about what their skin tone is, and the dream that the color of your skin isn’t why you are judged, but by your works and character. This passion in Kings voice gives his listeners the hope and dream that one day segregation and discrimination will be gone and the saying “all men are created equal” will be true and not only for a select few.  

Throughout his speech, King also uses rhetorical devices to open the eyes of his listeners. King uses repetition, parallelism, and allusions to add emphasis and more meaning to his speech that captured his listeners' attention. King used repetition in his speech especially when he was talking about the Emancipation Proclamation and his dreams. He was continually reminding his audience that a hundred years as passed since the signing and promise of the document, adding emphasis that it’s been too long for them to wait any longer. King was also repeatedly saying “I have a dream”, telling his listeners that even though nothing has happened in a hundred years, he still has hope that things will get better and has dreams about what they will look like. The constant repetition of words causes his listeners to pay attention and really listen to what King has to say, rather than just taking what he’s saying with a grain of salt.  

King also uses parallelism and allusions in his speech. He uses parallelism show the importance of certain statements that he has, this is mainly where he discusses that, “We cannot walk alone” and “We cannot turn back” (King). He uses parallelism here to show that it is just as important to stand together in situations that affect everyone just as it is to finish what they have started and not stop until they have reached their goal. King also uses allusions in his speech to remind his listeners about events that have happened in life. He does this where he discusses the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincon and where he talks about all his dreams for a better life. These allusions allow King’s audience to connect to what he is saying because they too can see what has happened and what can happen. These rhetorical devices allow King’s listeners to not only really hear what he is saying but to also see what he is saying. 

Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech changed society forever. King covered every little detail and called out the cruelty of segregation and discrimination, while winning over his audience and changing the future. He allowed his listeners to fully relate, connect, and understand everything that he discussed and touched lives all around him. King was able to have such a major impact on the nation through his tones, persuasive appeals, and rhetorical devices that he used in order to really allow his arguments to win over people across the country and change society for the best. Without all the effort and personalization that King put into his speech, King might never have helped to change society.