In Martin Luther King Jr's speech I Have a Dream, he reminds us all that we must “transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood”(par. 22). He used many literary and rhetorical devices such as pathos, metaphors, and anaphoras. These devices were able to help him show the importance within his message by enhancing his speech and his diction. His use of these contributed to what is now known and remembered as one of the greatest turning points in American history.

Within his speech, King used pathos as a rhetorical device to try to get the audience to feel what he and his people had to live through every day of their lives. At one point, he stated, “We can never be satisfied as long as the N**** is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality”(par.12). This shows the pain and suffering that they had been forced to endure as a part of their daily routines. King continued to use pathos throughout his speech to show how desperate they were to be able to live normal lives such as any white person could.

King was also able to include many metaphors into his speech such as when he said that “America has given the N**** people a bad check--a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’”(par. 4). The use of this metaphor was extremely important in his speech because it demonstrated that everybody came to America for a better life but instead, Negroes were denied just that. King scattered metaphors throughout his speech so that people would be able to connect certain ideas and get other people to understand how Negroes were feeling in that period of time. Another metaphorical example was when he used the example of an “island of poverty” that the Negroes were living on within an ocean of prosperity. The metaphors included in his speech were a smart way of pulling in his audience to support his cause.

One last device that King used in his speech was anaphoras. He used anaphoras several times throughout his speech so that people would engage with what he way saying. For example, he said “I have a dream”, and “Let freedom ring”, many times near the end of his speech so that he could emphasize the fact that he wanted his people to finally be free. At the beginning of his speech, he also says, “One hundred years later….” quite a few times so that he could show that despite living over a century in America, Negroes were still not free of the oppression that they had been burdened with from the start. When he repeated certain words the right amount of times, it created a powerful effect in the end.

King was a very charismatic speaker, and that showed through the way he used literary and rhetorical devices when he gave his speeches. Not only did he use one technique, but he used multiple techniques that helped him engage his audience instead of him just becoming one more person speaking to them at a rally. This had the effect of inspiring crowds whenever he had a message he wanted to share.