king speech Essay examples

Submitted By gbone12498
Words: 316
Pages: 2

The message Martin Luther King was trying to convey was that the black community deserved the same rights as their fellow Americans regardless of race. He mentions that the forefathers had been “signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” when they were writing the Declaration of Independence. King uses many strongly worded metaphors and similes that help paint a picture in one’s mind. The idea that the black community had “bad checks” and “insufficient funds” was an interesting way to put their current situation into perspective. The African Americans had been under extreme segregation and oppressed rule. They had almost no rights as a human in some of the states, even though they were promised this in The Declaration. Dr. King was trying to connect this idea in his speech and was definitely successful. Some examples he gives are that the Nation has “vaults of wealth” or vaults of freedom and the African American community deserved to cash in on the riches. He demands that the black community be given access to those freedoms. Dr. King does not however call on the African American community to take up arms and have a militancy, he encourages them through peace and Dr. King’s words are most definitely some powerful peace keeping words. Along with his descriptive phrases he also uses the power of repetition. In the final lines of his speech he starts his sentences with “I have a dream” and “Let freedom ring”. This repetition is powerful because it