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Analyzing Rhetoric in "I Have a Dream"
[|Read] or [|view] Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, then answer the following questions: ([|PDF of speech]) ([|YouTube video of speech])

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1. **What examples of figurative language can be found in the text?** (For example, "seared in the flames of withering injustice"; "manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination"; "whirlwinds of revolt"; "oasis of freedom and justice"; "symphony of brotherhood." 2. **How do these uses enhance the overall impact of the speech?** 3. **What oratorical devices does King use to add vitality and force to his speech?** (For example, use of **refrains** such as "I have a dream," "let freedom ring" and "we can never be satisfied"; multiple shifts in sentence lengths; dramatic shifts in tone, such as from enraged to cautionary to hopeful; use of questions as well as exclamations, such as "when will you be satisfied?" and "I have a dream today!") 4. **In what specific ways does King call forth his experience as a preacher to lend persuasive power to the speech?** (For example, he uses several images that call to mind both the plight of black Americans as well as the Old Testament Hebrews under the oppression of slavery -"the manacles of segregation" and the "chains of discrimination"; the final line of the speech invokes "the old Negro spiritual" and is steeped in Biblical influence -"Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"