I Have a Dream

I Have a Dream

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Literary Analysis: Persuasive Speech

A persuasive speech is a speech that tries to convince listeners to think or act in a certain way. Persuasive speeches may appeal to reason or emotion or both. In order to engage the audience, speakers often include rhetorical devices, special patterns of words and ideas that create emphasis and stir emotion in the audience.

Literary Analysis: Persuasive Speech

Common rhetorical devices include the following:

• Parallelism: repeating a grammatical structure or arrangement of words to create a sense of rhythm and momentum

• Restatement: expressing the same idea in different words to clarify and stress key points

• Repetition: expressing different ideas using the same words or images in order to reinforce concepts and unify the speech

Open Ended

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

Open Ended

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. This note was a promise that all men . . . would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Open Ended

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

Reading: Analyze Persuasive Techniques

Persuasive techniques are devices used to influence the audience in favor of the author’s argument. In addition to presenting evidence in a persuasive speech, a speaker may use the following:

• emotionally charged language

• rhetorical devices, such as parallelism, restatement, and repetition

Reading: Analyze Persuasive Techniques

To analyze and evaluate persuasive techniques, read aloud to hear the effect. Notice the emotional impact of the sounds of certain words, as well as the rhythm and momentum created by the word patterns that the author uses. Consider both the purpose and effect of these persuasive techniques and evaluate the author’s success in using them to make a convincing argument.

Open Ended

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

To which “great American” does King allude in this sentence?

Open Ended

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

What place does King refer to in saying “in whose symbolic shadow we stand”?

Open Ended

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

What well-known speech in American history does King echo in saying “five score years ago”?

Open Ended

Now is the time to make real the promises of Democracy.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

How does this passage illustrate parallelism?

Open Ended

Now is the time to make real the promises of Democracy.

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

What emotionally charged words or phrases does King use in this passage?

Open Ended

This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

What image dominates this passage?

Open Ended

This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

How does the passage illustrate parallelism?

Multiple Choice

In front of which building in Washington, D.C., did Dr. King deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech?

• Union Station

• the White House

• the National Cathedral

• the Lincoln Memorial

Multiple Choice

In “I Have a Dream,” what does Dr. King urge African Americans to do?

• struggle for equal rights with discipline and dignity

• appreciate the freedoms they currently have

• register to vote, even if it is not convenient

• regard all white people with suspicion

Multiple Choice

Which of the following answer choices states Dr. King’s main purpose in “I Have a Dream”?

• He wants everyone in his audience to register to vote.

• He wants Americans to appreciate their heritage more.

• He wants his audience to secure civil rights for all Americans.

• He wants white Americans to apologize for the evils of slavery.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following answer choices best identifies the “dream” Dr. King describes in “I Have a Dream”?

• power for the poor and disadvantaged

• more wealth and prosperity for all Americans

• election of more public officials from minority ranks

• liberty and justice for all Americans regardless of race

Multiple Choice

Which rhetorical device is represented by Dr. King’s references to “a check” and a “promissory note” in this passage from his “I Have a Dream” speech?

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. 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.

• analogy

• repetition

• parallelism

• restatement

Multiple Choice

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Which words or phrases in this passage illustrate parallelism?

• go back to

• slums and ghettos

• will be changed

• knowing that somehow

Multiple Choice

Which of the following answer choices best identifies the italicized words in this sentence from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech?

We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.

• repetition

• symbolism

• direct quotation

• charged language

Multiple Choice

Which of the following sentences contains the best example of parallel structure?

• The inability of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to act on the issue of slavery led to nearly 200 years of unrest that came to a head during the civil rights movement.

• Although John F. Kennedy was killed before much of his civil rights program was enacted, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, fulfilled his promises of justice for African Americans.

• Baseball player Jackie Robinson, singer Marian Anderson, poet Langston Hughes, and minister Martin Luther King Jr. all played crucial roles in the fight for civil rights.

• Charlayne Hunter-Gault, one of nine brave students who integrated the Little Rock school system, grew up to become an internationally known journalist.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following sentences contains the best example of parallel structure?

• The 1960s saw mass social and economic protests in France, Italy, Poland, and many other places besides the United States.

• Martin Luther, the German religious leader for whom King was named, wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, founded a new church, and translated the Bible into German.

• President Lyndon Johnson's ambitious program of social reform, so important to King's fight for civil rights, was partially derailed by American involvement in the Vietnam War.

• When Branch Rickey hired Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he explained that Robinson would need courage to keep from fighting back when taunted or threatened.

Multiple Choice

In “I Have a Dream,” Dr. King tells his listeners that they should not “wallow in the valley of despair.” What feeling is he urging them to avoid?

• hopelessness from believing that the present situation will never change

• confidence that the present situation can be overcome without effort

• satisfaction that others will do the work of change for them

• resentment toward the society that has oppressed them