To be an effective speaker, you should use language vividly and use rhythm to en

To be an effective speaker, you should use language vividly and use rhythm to enhance the vividness of your discourse. The use of vivid language and rhythm is also important to writers and performers.
1) View Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. Discuss and provide examples of his use of metaphor, simile, parellelism, repetition, alliteration, and antithesis.
2) Think about some of your favorite songs, poems, books, or quotes from public speeches, TV, or movies. Post examples of at least two of the following stylistic devices: metaphor, simile, parallelism, repetition, alliteration, or antithesis. Make sure to attribute the lyrics or quote to the writer and/or speaker, singer, etc.
3) Create your own metaphor or simile for a word or concept of your choice OR for one of the following: Love, Hate, Friendship, Grief, Pride, Anxiety. DO NOT PLAGRIZE FROM THE STUDENT AT ALL, OR USE CHATGBT. I will check it in Turnitin
Be sure to reference Lucas with a page number and respond to 2 classmates.
First Student Chase:One of the things I really liked about Martin Luther King’s speech was the use of metaphors throughout the speech such as with the comparison of gradualism as something similar to a drug. Metaphors are one of the things Lucas mentioned on page 221 and to follow up with that there was also the use of repetition that’s mentioned on page 223. Part of what I believe makes the speech powerful is the fact that Mr King repeats I have a dream over and over again as he gets louder towards the end of his speech causing each interaction to have more impact than the last.
As for one of my favorite books, I would go with the original Frankenstein which used similes quite a bit to describe the monster by comparing its body to various things in order to help create a more vivid picture of how ghastly it looked. Smilies were mentioned by Lucas on page 220 when talking about how to make more vivid pictures. There is also a form of repetition throughout the story when it talks about the monsters and people’s reaction to seeing it always being one of intense aggression and fear. The repetition in this case is more drawn out but it helps to show that it’s not just in Dr Frankenstein’s head how unbelievably horrific the beast he created despite how immaculently intelligent he was.
The makings of Pride are like that of gold in its splendid shine and yet it melts so easily when faced with heat like that of the intense infernos of hate to rival its spender.
Second Student Sav: I particularly love King Jr’s usage of light and heat in this speech. He compares a beacon of light and hope to the searing flames of withering injustice. He talks about Mississippi being a state “sweltering with the heat of injustice” and the “heat of oppression” and compares it to a future oasis of freedom and justice.
Alliteration occurs between “color of their skin // content of their character” and boy does it pack a punch. It creates contrast and antithesis and wholeness all at once. “I have a dream” provides a sense of repetition and familiarity as well; it’s the anchor that keeps this monumental ship of a speech from floating too far away on vivid imagery from the point. While it’s more subtle, the phrase “We can never be satisfied” is repeated twice before evolving to “We are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied” in a, well, satisfying conclusion to the sentiment.
There are probably hundreds of literature and communication theses written on the content of this speech alone, so because there are other things to get to, I won’t go too deep in on it.
My favorite poem is called “Two-Headed Calf” by Laura Gilpin, and what I like about it is its ability to pack an absolute punch in a few simple lines depicting the present, the tragic future, and back to the peaceful present of a baby two-headed cow. It starts with “Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature…” which is already a nice example of alliteration pertaining to the “f” consonant. Followed by that is the line “they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum.” Freak of nature has a rhythm with newspaper and also the “n” consonant to tie it together, and the contrast between farmland and museum already gives you range in the environment to work with.
“But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother,” she continues, giving us range in not just environment, but time as well. The contrast between the future and the present isn’t always executed well but when it is, it’s powerful. “It is a perfect summer evening: the moon is rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass. And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.”
That’s the whole poem. Not a lot of metaphor, not a lot of simile, no repetition…but the simplicity, the emotionality, the contrast, and the conversational flow of the occasional usage of alliteration is enough to make it really stand out.
I wrote a blog a while back that unpacked the word Moments after watching Haunting of Hill House during Halloween, a show based on Shirley Jackson’s novel that depicts a family grappling with childhood ghost trauma. Each of the five siblings is representative of a different stage of grief. One of the characters has a monologue about moments not acting like dominoes, falling one into another, but being more like confetti. I elaborated on that idea. “Moments sprinkle around us like rain, and life blooms relentlessly as a result. Moments freeze in the cold air and turn to snow, and life crawls back into the warmth of the ground – but it’s never gone, not completely. Moments are the confetti in the celebration that is life. They are the shrapnel of love’s brilliant explosion.”