We tend to believe that a great speech comes from a great orator who has the skills to engage his audience with voice modulation, his confidence levels and his ability to boost the emotions of the listeners. Paraphrasing it , we could say, it will be a great speech if the speaker talks about what the listeners wants to listen and give them a direction regarding their issues. So, its kind of hard for a person to appreciate ‘greatness’ of the speech if the issue the speech talks about is not affecting his life.
That’s what I believed till I read ‘I have a dream’ by Martin Luther king Jr .It was delivered in 1960’s in US. I don’t belong to that era where people are fighting for civil rights and end of racial discrimination, I was not the citizen of US, I am not a black to feel and understand the pain of inequality, I was not standing in the crowd when it was delivered, I didn’t even listened or watched the recorded version of it so there is no way the magic of the speaker worked on me, I just read it, but still I was able to feel the pain of a black man. I felt the agony , I felt the hatred towards racism, I understood why boxer Ali resented his Christian name.
While the novel “The roots” talked about the issue, “I have a dream” is all about the hope to end it .The roots was about slavery, this speech is about discrimination. But in both racism is the theme. Luther king Jr was very clear on what he wants to say and on what he is hoping for. The speech is not about the hatred towards white, its about the dream of a man where men are not treated differently based on their color. It was about the promised justice in constitution which was not delivered. Its about equality and universal brotherhood.
Here is the text of the speech
1 comment:
Good one Sanju:)
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