A Stylistic Analysis of Martin Luther King’s I HAVE A DREAM

3.1 Repetition:

Throughout the speech, Dr. King repeats words and sentence. This is a very outstanding feature in this speech called repetition. It belongs to the stylistic device of syntactic over-regularity. The term repetition is restricted to mean the case of exact copying of a certain previous unit in a text such as a word, phrase or even a sentence (Leech, 1969), because all the over-regular features in literature are in some sense repetitious. Used in speech, repetition not only makes it easy for the audience to follow what the speaker is saying, but also gives a strong rhythmic quality to the speech and makes it more memorable. In paragraphs 8 through 16, for example, King uses the words “I have a dream” nine times. This repetition helps to achieve the function of coherence in discourse and the function of reinforcement in mood and emotion, expressing the speaker’s strong emotion of longing for freedom, justice, righteousness and a much more united nation of all of God’s children.

If we study the whole speech more carefully, it is easy for us to find many other examples of repetition used.

① But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro.

② is still sadly crippled by the manacles of seGREgation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

Here the phrase “one hundred years later” has been repeated three times, seemingly indicating that it is really a long time for the Negro to wait for the coming of the time of justice and righteousness.

②But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the GREat vaults of opportunity of this nation. (Par.4)

the phrase “we refuse to believe that…” has been used twice to indicate the speaker’s good hope.

③ Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of seGREgation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s Children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. (Par.4)

In this short passage, the clause “Now is the time to…” has been used four times to emphasize the fierce urgency of “NOW” and to encourage and persuade the blacks to take immediate action to rise above and gain their own rights and freedom.

Other examples of repetition can still be easily found throughout the speech. In par. 7, the words “we can never/cannot be satisfied as long as…” has been used as many as five times to show the determination and persistence of the black people; in par. 17, the words “with the faith we will be able to…” has been repeated twice for the purpose of showing how strong the faith of the black people is to struggle for the brotherhood of “all of God’s children”, and how strong the faith of the black people is to believe that they “will be free one day”. Now let’s enjoy another example.

④And if America is to be a GREat nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire! Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city… (Paragraphs 19 through 25)

the words “Let Freedom ring…” has been repeated as many as nine times to indicate that it is the whole of the United States rather than any part of it that should be bathed in the sunshine of freedom.

3.2 Use of Parallelism

Parallelism is another syntactic over-regularity. It means exact repetition in equivalent positions. It differs from simple repetition in that the identity does not extend to absolute duplication, it “requires some variable feature of the pattern-some contrasting elements which are ‘parallel’ with respect to their position in the pattern”(Leech, 1969:66). To put it simply, parallelism means the balancing of sentence elements that are grammatically equal. To take them parallel, balance nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, clauses with clauses, and so forth.转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net