I Have a Dream Speech Reaction

One of the main themes that Martin Luther King uses throughout this speech is the contrast between hot and cold. He references situations of extreme heat and cool relief. The heat is “sweltering,” and seemingly suffocative while “cooling off” is considered a “luxury.” Dr. King knows that the “sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.” This imagery is effective because everyone has experienced swelter and because the day of the speech was probably sweltering and stuffy because it was in Washington, D.C. in late August. King’s references to extreme heat would not have been nearly as effective if the audience were in a cold climate. He poses the contrast of “an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality” as a huge relief and success. Also, after summer, autumn comes surely and inevitably. This furthers his metaphor by implying that freedom and equality will inevitably come if the “creative protest” continues. Using the same reference to hot and cool settings, King states that he “[has] a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustices, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” Once again, heat and swelter is used in a negative situation, while the oasis represents a freedom, justice, and a cooling release from the oppression.

Another aspect of this hot – cool metaphor is the difference between the climate of the North and South in the U.S. and the difference between their respective levels of discrimination against African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Blacks were much more oppressed in the South than in the North, as Dr. King knows when he says that he “cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” The fact that blacks cannot even vote in the South gives the South the negative connotation that comes with the “sweltering” oppression in the region. The North’s climate is a bit cooler temperature wise, but also in terms of discrimination because blacks can at least vote in the North. Dr. King’s metaphor of the contrast of hot and cool has many more levels than it would first appear to have; but each different aspect of the metaphor works very well with Dr. King’s meaning that he is trying to get across in his speech.