Political Discourse Analyzing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Political Discourse Analyzing - Essay Example I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King is one of the speeches that have stayed popular for a long time in the whole world. Taking an excerpt from the speech, â€Å"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood†. The connection is evident that sons in either case are son which is the bottom line. According to Goddard, (1998), and Hutcheon, (2000), stylistically the speech is a political treatise, or a work of poetry delivered masterfully like an improvised sermon. Former slave owners and former slaves are both able to bear sons and become like brothers. This connection is that former slave owners and former slaves are supposed to be like brothers. But Martin Luther King could see this in a dream that would come true (Morris, &, Hirst, 1991; Halliday, 1985). The bursting biblical language and imagery used especially in the first parts of the sp eech portrays a picture of seething American nightmare of racial segregation against the blacks. The former slave owners are the whites and the former slaves are the blacks. His use of the phrase, â€Å"now is the time†. For example, now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all God’s children. ... A greater part of King’s approach was more visionary and eloquence to the non violent movement against black segregation in America. The second part of the speech deals with the dream in a fairer future of racial harmony and integration (Halliday, 1978; Todorova, 1999). The part of the speech that says; I say to you today, my friends, that inspire of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. The repetition of this phrase continually emphasizes in driving home Martin Luther King’s inspirational concepts. Coherence Coherence serves as a quick way to analyze the overall form rather than the content of an argument in a speech. The coherence through parallel structure was highly applied by Martin Luther King in his speech. The reader or listener can easily predict what King is about to say. Looking at the speech, it presents a powerful rhetorical effect of using parallel structure to create refrai n. For example, I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. This sentence can easily be connected to the following: With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we be free one day. The linguistic features are powerful determinants of similarities and differences between registers. I have a dream today stretches cohesion to the inter clause, inter sentence and inter paragraph