Letter from Birmingham Jail vs. I Have a Dream
The great civil rights leader, advocate, and preacher, Martin Luther King, had an extraordinary gift in making simple works such as speeches and letters into beautiful literature. In this essay, two works by King: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” will be discussed and compared. Although Martin Luther King is the author of both of these analects, and while he demonstrates many of the same skills in both of them, he brings about different techniques to address different audiences.
The famous speech given in Washington, “I Have a Dream” was addressed to the nation as a whole. He begins by pointing out issues in America, and concludes with his dream for the future, and how we can achieve it. It has become an inspiring message of hope and a standard of how far we have come, as well as where we should be, in the present day. As wonderful as this speech is, it is important to remember the tribulation faced to get there. Author, W. Ralph Eubanks wrote, addressing American youth, “I want our young people to know …show more content…
This is expressed very clearly in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”(King 467). He concludes both “I Have a Dream” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” with a feeling of hope, conveyed in the arousing concluding sentence of “I Have a Dream”: And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring… we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children… will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at
The great civil rights leader, advocate, and preacher, Martin Luther King, had an extraordinary gift in making simple works such as speeches and letters into beautiful literature. In this essay, two works by King: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” will be discussed and compared. Although Martin Luther King is the author of both of these analects, and while he demonstrates many of the same skills in both of them, he brings about different techniques to address different audiences.
The famous speech given in Washington, “I Have a Dream” was addressed to the nation as a whole. He begins by pointing out issues in America, and concludes with his dream for the future, and how we can achieve it. It has become an inspiring message of hope and a standard of how far we have come, as well as where we should be, in the present day. As wonderful as this speech is, it is important to remember the tribulation faced to get there. Author, W. Ralph Eubanks wrote, addressing American youth, “I want our young people to know …show more content…
This is expressed very clearly in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”(King 467). He concludes both “I Have a Dream” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” with a feeling of hope, conveyed in the arousing concluding sentence of “I Have a Dream”: And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring… we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children… will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at