Camille Zendzian

RA
IHAD Revision
06/05/14
In MLKs persuasive speech I Have a Dream, he addresses the racial inequality that
divided the nation in order to encourage Americans to overcome their struggles and prejudices
and reunite as a harmonious people.
King shifts from plural to singular personal pronouns as he first addresses our and then
focuses on his individual dream to construct a sense of unity between him and his audience.
The author pairs repetition and the collective pronoun to confess to the nation that we [King
and his followers] can never be satisfied (P13) so long as America is divided over the color of a
mans skin. Through anaphora, Dr. King assures that the nation clearly understands the
perseverance of his cause and his people: they will never give up until they have achieved their
goal of unionization. By correlating this concept with the collective use of we, MLK reminds
onlookers that he is one of them and he understands their struggles for they are also his. He
then shifts to express that I [Dr. King] have a dream! (P18-23) to reveal his personal
connection and aspirations for the cause. By transitioning from collective to individual, King
establishes him as part of a whole; therefore, his own ideas are stretch far beyond merely
himself. They reach out and connect each person in his audience.
If people such as Dr. King did not devote their lives to promoting unity, America would
not be the great country it is today. Rather, it would have remained divided North and South and
progressed separately from each other. The nation would have fallen, as Lincoln claim, due to
its cruel division.