Martin Luther King Jr. was a very well known speaker and activist in the civil rights movement. During the 1940’s - 1960’s discrimination was everywhere. Often African American citizens were segregated from whites. Many people had tried to stand up for their rights and equality in America, but they were often thrown into jail or were violently punished. King was ready for a drastic change to lead towards freedom. King was a well educated man. He used his knowledge to find nonviolent ways to reach out to the public. King used many different ways to showcase the problems going on in the U.S. He gave speeches, lead boycotts, and was a leader during the “March on Washington” He decided to write and present a speech in Washington DC. The speech…show more content… An allusion is a literary element that is used to call something to mind directly or indirectly. He used many allusion’s in his speech to show that everyone is created equal. For example,”I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”(Luther 5).Martin Luther King used an allusion of the bible. The bible is widely known throughout the U.S. King wanted to reach out to people by showing how the Lord viewed the world and how he had imagined it. In the text King states “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”( Luther 3). King was talking about Abraham Lincoln during his speech after the civil war had ended. He was reminding audience members how slavery had ended. Another example of King using an allusion is when he mentions the constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He states “ When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”( Luther 3).Martin Luther King used this allusion to describe our founding fathers promise that all men are created equal. He used this…show more content… King put much hard work and determination into his speech. Since Martin Luther King was a well educated man, he used his knowledge to reach out to people. He wanted the best for this country, and took all the risks imaginable. In King’s speech he uses different literary elements to get his point across. A powerful literary element that King used was an anaphora. An anaphora is a deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning or end of a sentence. Martin Luther King Jr. used an anaphora to get his point across. In the third paragraph he repeats “ One hundred years later...” (Luther 3). King used this phrase as an anaphora because it was explaining that one hundred years later African Americans still aren’t free. Slavery had been gone, but freedom wasn’t given to everybody. In the text he states “ I have a dream...” (Luther 5).He goes on to use this phrase many more times. King had used this phrase to tell people how he wanted to see the world in the future. Another example of an anaphora is when he says “ let freedom ring...” (Luther 5).Martin Luther King was telling people that freedom would be all around the world. He knew that by saying this people would begin to understand what African American’s had longed for.
