In his “I Have A Dream” speech, Martin Luther King used multiple literary devices to convey his message to the audience. By employing similes, metaphors, parallelism, repetition, alliteration, antithesis, clichés, personifications, quotations, and rhetorical questions, King expresses his expectations for the progress our country should undergo in the future. A simile is an explicit comparison between two things that are very different using the terms “like” or “as”. King uses this type of comparison when he says, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope." Later in his speech, Dr. King again uses a simile: “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Similarly, a metaphor is implicit comparison between two things that are different without using the terms “like” or “as”. One example of a metaphor in King’s speech is, “a lonely island or poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” Another is, “But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.” Parallelism is the similar arrangement of words, phrases, or sentences. Dr. King uses this device when starting, “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” Once again parallelism is evident paragraphs 13 and 14 when King begins nearly every sentence with “I have a dream”
Repetition is saying something again in the exact same way. Dr. King uses repletion throughout his speech. Two examples of his repetition are when, in paragraph 10, he starts his sentences with “We cannot be satisfied,” and when. In paragraph 15, he begins each sentence with “Let freedom ring.” Alliteration is the repeating of the initial consonant sound of close or adjoining words. “In a sense we have come to our nation’s ca...