Functional Styles. Афанасьева Н.Р - 17 стр.

ability to make sudden alterations to his plans. This skill helped King          Content for "I Have a Dream"
establish a rapport with his ever-changing audience so that he could             "I Have a Dream" has been misconstrued and sentimentalized
consistently communicate on a meaningful level, a skill that was dem-      by some who focus only on the dream. The first half of the speech
onstrated at the March demonstration.                                      does not portray an American dream but rather catalogues an Ameri-
       What is also apparent in "I Have Dream" is King's deep com-         can nightmare. In the manner of Old Testament prophets, Frederick
mitment to scholarship (he earned a Ph.D. from Boston University).         Douglass's "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" oration and
King was clearly well versed in both American history and religious        Vernon Johns, King excoriated a nation that espoused equality while
scripture, and he seamlessly weaves references to both into the fabric     forcing blacks onto "a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast
of his oration.                                                            ocean of material prosperity."
       Overall, "I Have a Dream" can be held up as a masterful crea-
tive work in itself; its dramatic structure coupled with its image-laden          African-American Folk Pulpit: "I Have a Dream"
content render a remarkably moving piece of American literature that              Important in reaching King's enormous and diverse audience
when read even outside of its original context still strongly resonates    were the resources of black folk preaching. These resources included
today.                                                                     call-and-response interaction with listeners; a calm-to-storm delivery
                                                                           that begins in a slow, professorial manner before swinging gradually
        Historical Context for "I Have a Dream"                            and rhythmically to a dramatic climax; schemes of parallelism, espe-
        Unfortunately, many of us remain blissfully unaware of the hor-    cially anaphora (e.g., "I have a dream that . . ."); and clusters of light
rific racial inequities that King decried in "I Have a Dream." In 1963,    and dark metaphors.
southern states featured not only separate black and white schools,
churches, and neighborhoods, but also separate black and white rest-                     Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"
rooms, drinking fountains, hotels, motels, restaurants, cafes, golf
courses, libraries, elevators, and cemeteries. African-Americans were
also systematically denied the right to vote. In addition, southern
whites could commit crimes against blacks – including murder – with
little or no fear of punishment. The system of racial division was en-
shrined in southern custom and law. Racism also conditioned life in
the North. Although segregationist practices directly violated the Four-
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution, the federal gov-
ernment exerted little or no effort to enforce these amendments. Lead-
ing politicians – including John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Lyn-
don Johnson – advocated racial equality only when pressured by King,
James Farmer, John Lewis, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other
activists who fostered nonviolent social disruption in the pursuit of
equal rights.

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