Literary Text Analysis (Essay Sample)

Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream”: Simple Structural Analysis Martin Luther King's most famous speech, "I Have A Dream." is a potential example of a textual structure that successfully utilizes argument design and rhetorical style to achieve the speaker's intention. Martin Luther King delivered his speech in front of thousands of black people on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The place, the audience, and the event combined have a clear purpose that makes the speech more sensible and appealing. The repetition of words and phrases to start the sentence is evident in the speech as it appeared many times in several parts. The parts "Now is the time," "We must," and "I have a dream" are repeated several times in their respective paragraphs. Upon watching the actual footage of Martin's speech, the repetition of words is effective as it received applause from the crowd. People would also respond "now is the time" and "we must" after sentences, expressing solidarity with the statement. Martin Luther King strategically appealed to the emotions of his audience by mentioning contexts, experiences, and narratives that almost everyone in the crowd was familiar with. Words like segregation, ghetto, and slavery are present in Martin's speech because those words are part of black people's reality even today. Having a person of color speak about the same experiences and realities as all black people make the rhetoric more purposeful and compelling. The speech becomes more credible and convincing because there is a connection between the speaker and the audience. It is not only that the audience understood the speaker and his intentions. The speech is more effective because the speaker knows everything very well - the existence of...