" King recognized that people are almost never persuaded by reason alone. Just like advertisers, King sold people by associating his points with images. He allowed for his audience to place pictures with the words. He did not just leave people with forgettable ideas, he planted them into the places he was describing, and made them feel what he was describing. He clearly used the most vivid language he could in order to make people see what he wanted them to. Although key, his language was not the only method he used to reach his audience.
More specifically, King used many grammatical tools in his speech to be effective. The most important were his rhetorical strategies. His use of anaphora in the speech was key, because it allowed the words he was using to stick in peoples' minds. Although there are eight occurrences of this in the speech, the most significant was his line, "I have a dream." By repeating this phrase, he triggered emotion and hope among his audience. He caused the listeners to desire and imagine what change would be like if it happened that very day. Other examples of anaphora included, "We refuse to believe," "Now is the time," and, "Let freedom ring." King frequently used regular repetition as well. In the speech, he used, "justice," 8 times, "dream," 11 times, and, "freedom," 20 times in order to glue the words into peoples' minds. To have any lasting impact, a speech has to be memorable, and King recognized that repetition was the best way to achieve that. .
King also used metaphor. In the speech he says, "In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check." He then makes the point, that although the Constitution promises that all men are to be seen as equal, the people of color are not receiving that equality. He then says, "Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.