Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's speech was delivered on August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC in front of the Lincoln Memorial. This speech was designed to reach out to millions of people, whether listening in the audience or wherever they could see/hear him talking. He was speaking to educate everyone on the recent laws and lives of people under pressure and to motivate those same people to change their lives, whether they were forced to overtake others or rise up quietly to achieve the status they deserved.
In this audience, there were people of all ages, races, and social classes who believed they deserved a chance in bettering themselves in life and he was going to help them achieve that. 200,000 attendees were in the audience that day, but so many more were reached, whether it was back then or in the current world today. In addition to the live audience, there was an external target audience. Dr. King was speaking to everyone within the sound of his voice because he wanted to achieve equality for all people without starting any violent uprisings.
"The content of a speech should be selected and organized to achieve the primary speech objective. Focus is important- extraneous information can weaken an otherwise effective argument." In order to gain focus for his speech, early on Dr. King alludes to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by saying "Five score years ago". This was effective because Abraham Lincoln was obviously known as an extremely honest and intellectual leader. Then, as he draws us deeper into his speech, intended to be like a sermon, biblical allusions are also prevalent.
[...] Martin Luther King, Jr.: Famous Speech Analysis Paper Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's speech was delivered on August in Washington, DC in front of the Lincoln Memorial. This speech was designed to reach out to millions of people, whether listening in the audience or wherever they could see/hear him talking. He was speaking to educate everyone on the recent laws and lives of people under pressure and to motivate those same people to change their lives, whether they were forced to overtake others or rise up quietly to achieve the status they deserved. [...]
[...] He says in reference to the abolition of slavery articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation, "It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity." Another Biblical allusion is found in King's tenth stanza: no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." This is an allusion to Amos 5:24.[7] Next, King also quotes from Isaiah have a dream that every valley shall be exalted and additionally, King alludes to the opening lines of Shakespeare's "Richard III" when he remarks, "this sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn . [...]
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