The purpose of MLK’s speech is to unite and inspire his listeners
and fellow freedom-fighters to continue to fight for equality in America. He
uses collective, and personal plural pronouns throughout his speech. In the
line ‘Let us not wallow in the valley of despair , I say to you today, my
friends’, he uses the pronouns ‘us’ and the term, ‘my friends’. He speaks to
the audience as if they are his friends and fellow activists, he brings his whole audience to an equal level. This helps the audience feel as if they are equal and part of
a group. Therefore they feel more inclined to help the group’s cause, which
in this case was fighting for civil rights.
MLK uses structure and stylistic devices in order to teach his audience the importance of change. He utilizes anaphora in the lines, ‘One hundred years later the Negro…’. Anaphora lets the message stick with the audience and gives the speech some rhythm and structure, while increasing in intensity. Keeping the same structure throughout the paragraph, anaphora then a metaphor, becomes grating to the ear. The anaphora that MLK uses, denotes the way in which, the never ending continuity of discrimination affects America. MLK uses this structure to subtly show that not changing things can lead to a gradual discomfort, in reference to the suffering of black Americans at the time of the civil-rights movement and before. He uses anaphora to show that the mistreatment and discrimination experienced by black people in America has been happening for 'one hundred years'; that it is continuous and damaging.
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