involves using similar
structures for two or
more parts of a sentence or sentences to create a comparison or pattern.
One
example in the "I Have a Dream Speech" is the four sentences that begin "one
hundred years later" in the third paragraph to discuss all the ways in which
African-Americans are still not free. Within one of these sentences that reads "One
hundred
years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the
manacles of segregation and
the chains of discrimination," King also uses
parallelism. The phrases "manacles of
segregation" and "chains of
discrimination" are in parallel form, as they are
three-word phrases with a
noun, the word "of," and another noun.
Later, in the sixth
paragraph, King begins several sentences with the parallel phrasing
"now is
the time to..." to speak about the agenda of the Civil Rights movement to end
injustice and segregation. After he states "we can never turn back" later in
the
speech, he uses parallel constructions for several sentences that begin
"We can never be
satisfied as long as..." These sentences not only use
repetition, but they also use
parallel constructions, as the parts of the
sentence that follow this phrase are all written in
the present tense about
an injustice that is currently occurring in the nation. Later, King ends
the
speech with several parallel sentences that begin famously with "I have a
dream
that..." These sentences also use repetition and are all written with
the same structure,
as they contain the future tense and use of words such as
"will," "will be,"
or "shall" to express a hope for something that will
happen in the near
future.
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