The
purpose of Kings speech is to assert that racial discrimination is real and to rally his
supporters to demand action. If he had just said that, however, it's unlikely we would remember
his speech. His language is memorable and powerful because it engages our emotions, and it is
persuasive because King is able to put what the black experience has been into words everyone
can understand.
Take, for example, his use of the blank checkat the
beginning of the speech. The metaphor works on several different levels. Firstly, it makes
concrete what his goal isto cash a check or to collect something that has been promised and is
owed to African Americans. Secondly, the fact that the check has bounced casts white society in
the role of people with bad credit, who cant pay their bills. It makes the outrage of blacks who
have endured what King calls the flames of withering injustice understandable in a basic way:
they want to be paid the riches of freedom...
No comments:
Post a Comment