This paper discusses Martin Luther King's famous speech, "I Have a Dream." What led Dr. King to speak and what were his concerns? Rick Rofman says, "The basic idea of King's speech is that while the Emancipation Proclamation gave the Negro freedom was signed by Lincoln in 1863, one hundred years later the Negro was still not free. King deplores this situation and gives an impassioned plea for change" (1). The message is simple but it is over 27 paragraphs long. The speech is full of literary devices such as metaphors, repetition, and contrasts of opposite ideas.
