1. King uses his description of segregation as the basis for an argument. What is the central claim of that arguments? What does King ask his audience to do about the situation he describes? 2. What does King mean by "the tranquilizing drug of gradualism"? Why does he warn his audience to resist it? 3. In King's vision, the oppressed do not rise up and crush their oppressors. Why not? How do the details by which he defines his dream fit in with what King tells his audience in paragraphs 6-7 and with his general philosophy of nonviolence? 4. King relies heavily on Figures of Speech throughout his address, particularly metaphor: The nation has given its black citizens a "bad check"; racial injustice is "quicksand"; brotherhood is a "table"; freedom is a bell that rings from the "hilltops". Choose several of these figures that you find effective, and explain how they help King to compare and contrast the "appalling condition" of the past and present with his brighter vision for the future.
