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Unit 15 TEXT 1

I HAVE A DREAM Martin Luther King, Jr.

Objectives: to figure out the stylistic features of this essay and the illustrations provided.

to review on the figures of speech used in the essay: the definitions, the functions, the usage, etc.

to write a brief essay commenting on (one of) the stylistic features in this article.

to make an oral comment on the racial discrimination in the US.

Pre-class work

1. Seek as much information as you can on M. L. King.

2. What do you know about the racial discrimination in the US in the past and at present?

3. Read the text and catch its main idea.

4. Work carefully on the text and identify its stylistic features, or the figures of speech used in this passage.

Section one In-reading

Step 1: Stimulation (15 mins.)

Rewrite the following sentences, trying to use figurative language suggested in the brackets. Then compare what you have written down with the sentences created by King. (transparency)

1. The Negro is still being segregated and discriminated. (manacles, or chains)

--- The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination. (ll.6, 7)

2. The Negro lives in poverty while the surrounding whites enjoy material

prosperity. (island, ocean)

--- The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. (ll. 8, 9)

3. Now is the time to enjoy racial justice instead of segregation. (rise)

--- Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. (ll. 26, 27)

4. Now is the time for the nation to get rid of racial injustice and to unite everyone as brothers and sisters. (the quicksands)

--- Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. (ll. 29, 30)

The re-written sentences are taken from King’s speech. The underlined words are his use of figurative language, which has made the things described come vividly alive. King is making use of the connotations of these words to arouse the feelings of his audience.

From this exercises, we can see different diction’s between different writers reflect different levels of the writing.

Figurative use of language is one of the stylistic features in King’s speech. Step 2: Stylistic features (5 mins.)

What are the figures of speech used in this passage? / What are the stylistic features you have identified in this passage?

1. parallelism or repetition: function - to make emphasis 2. metaphor 3. simile

4. analogy: function - make not illegible but intelligible 5. comparison and contrast: function - (6. personal pronouns)

(7. short but forceful sentences)

Step 3: Parallelism or repetition (25 mins.)

1. (ll. 5-10, para. 2) One hundred years later, ... 4

to emphasize the gap between the hope inspired by the Emancipation Proclamation and the status quo (comp.3-2) Or, to present the present appalling condition of the Negro: segregated, discriminated, poor, unfree,

despised and even neglected, an exile

2. (ll. 20-22, para.4) We refuse to believe that ... 2 3. (ll. 22-24, para.4) We have come to ... 2 4. (ll. 26-30, para.4) Now is the time to ... 4

Why is the word ‘now’ italicized and repeatedly used? (comp.3-4) to emphasize the urgency of the tasks the blacks are confronted with. 5. (ll. 53-59, para.7) We can never be satisfied as long as ... 4

to give specific examples to show the conditions the blacks are not satisfied with: ill-treatment by the police, difficult lodging, living in ghettoes all the time / being isolated from the majority whites, no right to vote and nothing to vote for because nothing is in favor of them.

6. (ll. 61-64, para.8) Some of you have come from ... 3

Do ‘trials’ and ‘jail’ mean that some blacks committed crimes so they were brought to the court and put into prison? If not, what do they imply?

These two words imply the unfair treatment by laws. As the last sentence states, the blacks cry for freedom, but are battered (beaten hard) by the storms of persecution (= persecuted in a large scale) and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

7. (ll.67-69, para.9) Go back to ... 6

Locate all the places mentioned here in a map. These are the places in ..., in which racial discrimination was at that time ...

8. (ll.74-93, paras.11-18) I have a dream that one day ... 6

to appeal for the racial equality by means of quotation (para.11), specific details (12), metaphor (13), personal anecdote (14), typical examples (16), analogy (18).

9. (ll. 94-99, para.19) With this faith we will be able to ... 3 (ll. 124-128, para.27) the conclusion

Some other figure of speech is applied in the paralleled sentences here. (for later discussion)

10. (ll.114-123, paras.21-26) Let freedom ring from ... 8

the longing of the blacks for freedom everywhere in the continent

to drive home the message that no one who has heard or read this speech -