What literary devices does MLK use to connect with and relate to his audience? Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. brings his supreme oratory skill and a visionary message of nonviolence to the African-American civil rights movement, leading it to historic influence. Being such an influence at this time, it is imperative for King to be able to connect and relate to his audiences. By using literary devices such as similes, religious references, and repetition King is able to compare certain ideas to one another, he is able to gain the attention of the listener by speaking about things they believe in and can relate to, and he is able to help the audience better absorb his ideas and opinions. These things make are what make a speech worth listening to. They create excitement and anticipation keeping whoever is listening interested. In Dr. Martin Luther Kings eulogy for the martyred children, he uses similes in order to express his feelings about the routine of life in terms of nature. The first one he uses is Like the ever-flowing waters on a river, life has its moments with little happiness (drought) and its moments with a lot of happiness (flood). It is important for King to express his ideas in words that his audience can easily understand. By doing this, he speaking to them on a more personal level. The second simile that King uses is Like the ever-changing warmth of summer and the piercing cold of winter. When Kings says this he means that life has its good times and its bad times, but we have to make the most of the good things. The audience of this sermon is the families of the four girls who lost their lives and the rest of the church. During this sermon King is trying to be respectful, but at the same time empowering. It is important for King to stay strong and encourage people to stay strong with him, since he is such an iconic figure during this time. King also uses biblical references in order to connect with his target audience, who is mostly religious. The familiarity of bible-type language draws the listener closer. It adds a

personal connection showing his audience that he is a man of god and that his work can be related closely with the work done in the bible. During one of his speeches, King talks about how the world must change in order to become a better place. To get his message across, he biblical reference so that he is able to reach out to all of his religious audience members. This is done when he says One say we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that the men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on lifes highway. The Jericho road story appears in Luke 10:25-37 and is the story of a Jew who is beaten and robbed while on the road to Jericho. When a priest and Levite pass by the man, they ignore him and continue walking, but a good Samaritan stops to help him. King makes this reference to Jericho road because just like the road, something must be done to fix the problems that are being ignored in the world today. One of the most important things King uses within his speeches is repetition. Repetition makes the phrases he uses more memorable and more powerful. King uses repetition throughout his I Have a Dream speech. Repetition is a good tool to use to reinforce an important idea. The repetition of key words and phrases will likely occur in a unified essay. Some writers will go beyond this method of unified writing and use repetition to create a rhythm, like a drum beating in the background. Kings speech is a perfect representation of this. King states, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice King goes on like this and uses the repetition of the title to represent the drum beating. He uses these words and follows them with things that he knows people are hoping for. He decides to use the word dream, because it is such a personal and deep commodity. The phrases he adds to the end of this representation are also very personal. This effects his target audience by letting them see these visualizations turn into reality. All of the changes to the phrase I have a dream are additions to the end, except the first one of the paragraph. The first sentence in this passage includes the word still. This creates the idea that the dream will not go away. This is very effective, because its the only change to the phrase I have a dream throughout the whole speech. All of these literary devices are used in Kings speeches so that he is able to make a deeper connection with his audience. By phrasing things in a certain way he is making what he is saying easier for the audience to understand, by using biblical references he is reaching out to religious members of the community and relating to them, by repeating his ideas over and over he is able to get them stuck in the heads of his listeners. He creates hope and empowers people to fight for what is right just by using his words.