“Where Do We Go From Here?” is a speech delivered by Martin Luther King in 1967 during the Southern Christian Leadership Council in Georgia. The year 1967 was a period in American history where the civil rights movement and Black Power was a reigning notion amongst the public – causing boycotts and riots across the country, eventually spreading to other continents. In the shown extract, King is perceived to highlight two main ideas to the audience. First, he asks for a social change of the order of American society for the equality of all humans regardless of race and gender – and second, for the freedom and perseverance of the civil rights movement. While King draws to the points of rioter’s belief, he concurrently establishes a vivid contrast
…show more content…
Being a man of Christianity, King often incorporates Christian sayings and doctrine into his speeches as either metaphors or allusions to illustrate a reflection of his world in theirs. In line 13 King paraphrases an allusion from the Bible when he says “Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” In Isaiah 11:6 of the bible, its quotes “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb… the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together” [Isaiah 11:6] referencing harmony amongst the meeker animals and predators. Similarly in King’s speech, he uses the bible passage as a metaphoric comparison for racial and gender harmony in an ideal world where everyone is united through miraculous effort – as the lamb and lion is perceived to never be together in nature. The second part of his sentence; “and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid” could almost be a direct quote from Micah 4:4 where “Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid” [Micah 4:4]. In the bible, the phrase refers to “the independence of the peasant farmer who is freed from military judgement” [Tsakiridis, 2016].The two quotes parallel the aspiration of being freed from social oppression and the will of being able to stand without fear of harm or
Being a man of Christianity, King often incorporates Christian sayings and doctrine into his speeches as either metaphors or allusions to illustrate a reflection of his world in theirs. In line 13 King paraphrases an allusion from the Bible when he says “Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” In Isaiah 11:6 of the bible, its quotes “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb… the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together” [Isaiah 11:6] referencing harmony amongst the meeker animals and predators. Similarly in King’s speech, he uses the bible passage as a metaphoric comparison for racial and gender harmony in an ideal world where everyone is united through miraculous effort – as the lamb and lion is perceived to never be together in nature. The second part of his sentence; “and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid” could almost be a direct quote from Micah 4:4 where “Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid” [Micah 4:4]. In the bible, the phrase refers to “the independence of the peasant farmer who is freed from military judgement” [Tsakiridis, 2016].The two quotes parallel the aspiration of being freed from social oppression and the will of being able to stand without fear of harm or