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Setting
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
King's style in this speech is made up of sentences that are short, dramatic, and meant to resonate with large groups of people. One noticeable feature is King's use of repetition. Near the end of his speech, he begins multiple consecutive sentences with "I have a dream": "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia [...], I have a dream that one day, even in the state of Mississippi [...], I have a dream that one day my four little children [...]." This pattern gives momentum to the speech, especially when spoken aloud. Each new description of the dream builds upon the previous one, growing in a crescendo to the final conclusion.
While King primarily uses short, clipped sentences in the speech, he also varies the length of his sentences throughout:
I have a dream today that every valley shall be exalted, every hill and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope.
The first sentence of the paragraph is long and discursive, evocatively showing King's dream of peace through biblical imagery. But the next sentence is short and simple. This variance in length is pleasing to the ear. In addition, King demonstrates that he can use any number of beautiful images to describe his dream of equality but that, in the end, his hope is quite simple—so simple it can be described in a four-word sentence: "This is our hope." The length of the sentences suggests that, while King's dream is not complicated, the beauty of the goal is immense and worth the struggle.
Lastly, King's short sentences are filled with simple grammatical constructions in the first and second person. King speaks to the audience directly, using the word "you" regularly, and speaks of himself using "I." This makes King's speech feel honest and intimate, as if he is speaking directly to each member of the audience:
I am not unmindful that some of you come here out of excessive trials and tribulation. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Here, King does not say, "Some people have come fresh from narrow jail cells"—he says, "Some of you," bringing the problem directly home to the listener. He places his personal familiarity with Black Americans' suffering at the forefront, building a bond between himself and his audience. King's style throughout the speech thus creates both rhetorical power and emotional intimacy, making his argument land more effectively with his audience.
Related Themes:
