Second Year Starts...
I just finished my first year in Fielding's media psychology doctoral program and have loved every minute of it...well maybe not every minute. I have never read so many books and articles!! But luckily I have found most of it to be really interesting.
I have finished 24 hours my first year which I think is pretty good and have a passable gpa. All of the classes have been fantastic - even statistics. One of my favorite classes was PSY 724C "Narratives, Symbols and Imagery in Media" which is about how meaning is structured through codes and signs not too unlike "symbology" in Dan Brown's books. One of my favorite books in this class was "Visual Intelligence" by Ann Marie Seward Barry and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in this subject. One of the papers that I turned in for the class was a semiotic analysis of MLK's "I have a dream" speech. That was such an interesting exercise and really showed me Dr. King's intelligence and ability to weave words into luxurious tapestries of mental imagery for his audience. Here is that paper:
Abstract
On August 28, 1963 in Washington DC, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech that many consider to be one of the most important speeches in American history. This speech originally titled “Canceled Check” became known as the “I Have a Dream” speech. It simplistically defined what America should be in terms that the audience would understand, yet the simplistic message was created and enhanced by the physical location full of symbolism and by a rich use of language – through metaphor, Biblical references, and codes. This paper is an attempt to conduct a semiotic analysis of the speech.
A Semiotic Analysis of the Martin Luther King Jr. Speech “I Have a Dream”
On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream Speech” to an audience of 200,000 plus people at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader who used peaceful methods of demonstration. The occasion for this speech was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The march called for the nation's attention to the injustice and inequalities that black Americans faced because of the color of their skin. “On Aug. 28, the city swelled with marchers. They drove in. They bussed in. They took trains. Three student marchers walked and hitchhiked 700 miles to get there. A quarter million people waved signs and cheered and listened to speakers address the civil rights problems challenging America (Nammour, 2003).”
The march consisted of not only black Americans but also people of other colors and ethnic backgrounds. The marchers assembled at the Lincoln Memorial and the speakers gathered on the steps. Songs were sung by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and the speakers included Charlton Heston, NAACP president Roy Wilkens, future U.S. Representative from Georgia John Lewis, A. Phillip Randolph, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, Daisy Bates, Diane Nash Bevel, Mrs. Medgar Evers, Mrs. Herbert Lee, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Walter Reuther, James Farmer, Whitney M. Young Jr., Matthew Ahmann, Rabbi Joachim Prinz and a few song selections performed by a choir in between some of the speakers.
Surprisingly Dr. King was the last speaker, a last minute reluctant add-on and had been warned to keep his speech to five minutes. After he began speaking from his written speech, it is said that Mahalia Jackson, the famous gospel singer, shouted to him “Tell them about the dream Martin!” and he did. Later as he recalled the speech he said "I started out reading the speech, then all of a sudden this thing came out of me that I have used — I'd used it many times before, that thing about 'I have a dream' — and I just felt that I wanted to use it here. I don't know why, I hadn't thought about it before the speech (Sundquist, 2009)."
Perhaps with Dr. King’s background in Sociology (BA), he knew exactly how to communicate to the diverse crowd amassed before him. This paper will examine the meanings of the meanings of the location and the words.
The Meaning of Meanings - Semiotics
Semiotics is the science of meaning. Its intent is to investigate, decipher, document and explain the what, how and why of signs. The goal of semiotics is to decipher the meanings that are built into all kinds of human products. The products include words, symbols, narratives, music, art, serious literature and not so serious literature. Semiotics focuses on the use, structure, and function of the signs (symbols, words, images, figures, etc.) used in creative and knowledge-making activities (Danesi, 2007).
Although the speech can be read now and many scholars have analyzed it, it is important to consider the context of it in a physical and intellectual capacity – as if this analyst was transported back in time to 1963, seeing the surrounding structures and the audience of diversity to gain an understanding of the equal importance of the symbolic physical location with the spoken words. To accomplish this journey, the signs of the event will be scrutinized, first looking at the symbols in the physical locale of the event and then the structure and function of the words of the speech.
Symbols
Symbols are signs that stand for something in a conventional way and are the building blocks of social systems. There was significance in the location for the march and ultimately the program for the day. Washington D.C. contains many symbols readily identifiable by those in our (America’s) social system. The particular symbols of that location broadly speaking were monuments to great Americans and American feats of military, leadership and intellectual prowess symbolizing America’s past and promises for the future.
The immediate area where the program was held would have afforded the speakers and the audience a view of the Lincoln Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, the Washington Memorial and the Capitol Building. It was hallowed ground, something that Dr. King recognized in his speech “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.”
The Capitol Building is symbolic of the operation of the government including the very foundation of the U.S. government which passes and enforces bills that ensure the freedom and equality of its citizens. Its architecture is reflective of Greek and Roman influences upon which the government was modeled. Built of materials that have endured for nearly 200 years (brick, sandstone, marble and cast iron) it symbolizes the stability and continuation of that model of government.
The Washington Memorial is in memory of the nation’s “father”, the first president and symbolizes strength and masculinity perhaps due to its phallic shape. The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool can be symbolic in several ways. As a reflecting pool, it resembles a mirror. The mirror reflected the reality of the situation. It reconfirmed the existence of the participants, the area, and the situation. The contents of the reflecting pool (water) symbolizes life, purity, fertility, and most importantly for this occasion transition.
The Lincoln Memorial was the focal point of the occasion. The speakers were on the steps of the memorial so the general focus would have been the impressive monument and even more impressive statue of Lincoln “The Great Emancipator.” Dr. King acknowledged this in his speech “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”
Lincoln was culturally symbolic to the black Americans in the audience as he is recognized as the one who freed the slaves. Others in the audience no doubt viewed him similarly yet probably in their own unique cultural ways. The denotative meaning of the statue of Lincoln would be a likeness of someone real or imaginary. This would be the case if the observer was not familiar with American history or presidents. However, if the observer was familiar with American history and or American presidents, the statue would have a connotative meaning in that the observer would note that it was a statue of (depending on the observer’s real-world relation to Lincoln) Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, Lincoln the guy on the five dollar bill, Lincoln the greatest president ever, so on and so forth.
For some people in the audience, the statue of Lincoln could have been symbolic of the actual Lincoln, there among them participating in the historical occasion and becoming aware of how the progress made in 100 years was not enough and that his promise (and the country’s) to them had only partially been fulfilled. Emancipator and emancipated were there to discuss the state of the union.
The Speech
Structurally and content-wise, the “I Have a Dream” speech is spectacular in its simplicity, repetitive phrasing, familiar quotations and the cadence in which Dr. King spoke. But more importantly are the words, the codes that were immediately understood by many people in the audience. Dr. King told a story. It was not so much a speech but a narrative meant to be understood and identifiable by the audience. It was meant to communicate ideas not provide a pedantic discourse on the obvious situation. According to Barthes, narratives function both at the individual level as well as at a cultural level. The individual level allows for self-discovery and the path the individual will take. At the cultural level the narrative gives cohesion to shared beliefs and to transmit values (Polkinghorne, 1988).
The speech was certainly transmitted by a speaker who was telling people that this was what he believed (his dream) and the recipients shared the foundational/cultural beliefs he spoke about. King set about early by providing a plot that caught the attention of the audience “So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check ("I Have A Dream Speech - Text, Audio and Video of Martin Luther King's Most Famous Speech," n.d.).” The speech is organized into a series of chronological events reinforcing the story. King speaks of the past “Five score years ago” the present “One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty…” and the future “I have a dream that one day…”
Codes
There are three general features that define codes. Representationality (signs and rules for combining them represent something), interpretability (implies messages can be understood by someone who understands the rules), and contextualization (implies that message interpretation is affected by the context in which it occurs. As sign systems codes are characterized by opposition (Danesi 2007). The speech contains many examples of this; black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, discords and symphonies, mountains and molehills. The significance of the opposition is that they are culture-specific ways of reacting to contextualized realities.
Genres are part of the signifying system and encode cultural values, myths, and ideology. In the speech, Dr. King refers to many cultural values – those at the American level and those at the black American level. Specifically for black Americans, he talks of manacles and chains, persecution and police brutality. At the American level, he speaks of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and uses banking codes such as bad check, and bankrupt.
He also paraphrases biblical passages which can be interpreted as myths. “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24),” “It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity (Psalm 30:5),” and “I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted..(Isaiah 40:4-5).” Dr. King’s ideology (and that of the speech) was formed by his religion, education and his culture and is summed up as the content of people’s character is more important than the color of their skin.
Iconographic codes are used throughout the speech in particular to create a map of the nation – Rockies of Colorado, peaks of California, Stone Mountain of Georgia, Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. An example of a stylistic code is the last sentence in the speech. It evokes a mental image along with a spiritual feeling “…when all of God’s children…will join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” This analyst interprets this as a stylistic code because it resembles the ending of a movie, such as a celebratory scene which then fades to credits.
One can argue that the dream motif represents codes of the unconscious. Dr. King uses the word “dream” but as discussed later in this analysis, the word “vision” is a more cohesive fit with the tense used. Although they are dreams, they are spoken about rather than visually projected to the audience thus allowing the audience to imagine, perhaps project their own versions of the dreams such as the desert state of Mississippi transforming into an oasis of freedom and justice. What would that mean to an individual? Would it conjure up literally images of oases replete with palm trees and camels or would the individual envision being able to sit at a drugstore counter and order a soda?
Interpretive codes are found in the speech in particular as in the ideological codes such as gradualism. However the glaring omission of one is most notable to this analyst. Although the speech is essentially about it, it is not mentioned once - racism. It is alluded to (racial injustice) but seems to be a deliberate omission perhaps because of its incendiary potential and negative connotation.
Metaphors
Rhetorical codes abound in the speech. These include metaphors that are so impactful in the human experience allowing for rhetorical flourishes and poetic imagination. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphorical expressions in everyday language give us insights into the metaphorical nature of the concepts that structure our everyday activities (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Orientational metaphors are used throughout the speech. These give an idea a spatial orientation such as rise up, stand up, and speed up which are physical aspects. Ontological metaphor is used to represent the racial injustice. That metaphor is the check. King uses this to deal rationally with the experience of unfulfilled promises in terms that everyone in the audience understands. He equates the promise (of the Emancipation Proclamation) to a bad check that has come back marked insufficient funds. They are there to “cash that check” and “a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
Container metaphors are used in the speech. Some examples are “the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” and “corners of American society” in addition “a cup of bitterness and hatred.”
Personification is another type of ontological metaphor where the physical object is further defined as being a person “your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.” In addition, “the curvaceous peaks of California!” is another example of personification as it is assigning human qualities to a non-human object.
A challenge to metaphorical coherence within the speech is the tense used for dream. “I have a dream” speaks of the present when normally, a dream (if considered literally) occurs in the past tense such as “I had a dream last night, or last week…” With this in mind, Dr. King might be using the word “dream” as a replacement for “vision” or “hope for the future.” Why would he use the word “dream” in place of “vision” (if that is what he did)? Hypothetically, a vision could be connected somehow to clairvoyance and discounted immediately. However, a dream could be words from God, inspiration, a better signifier because dreams do come true?
Another important metaphor used in the speech is one that ideas or discourses are light-mediums “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.”
Finally, with the diverse audience, Dr. King had to ensure that he described events that perhaps some people in the audience had not experienced or did not understand and he did this in terms that meant something to the common denominator which was human. This would ensure mutual understanding and would create rapport with the crowd. An example of this is when he uses a heat metaphor to connect several passages in the speech regarding injustice. These examples will be ordered as they occur in the speech “seared in the flames of withering injustice”, “This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent.” This image of an unbearable heat and perhaps thirst can be quenched with water “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” The heat metaphor creates an image of a dangerous situation for humans – any humans no matter the color of their skin and the water is a metaphor for a life-saving substance. The message was understood by all.
Conclusion
In retrospect and in a historical context, the “I Have a Dream” speech turned the tide in the pursuit of civil rights for black Americans. Why is this speech remembered as “the speech” at that march and not the many others preceding it? What did he say that made it memorable? This situation brings to mind, ironically enough, Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg. Edward Everett delivered a two hour formal speech to the assembled crowd. Lincoln followed him and spoke for a little over two minutes. Yet, Everett is rarely remembered ever being at the Gettysburg dedication. Content-wise Lincoln’s speech (like King’s) mentions the past, recognizes the dire situation of the present but through the artistry of language, delivers hope and change in a succinct manner and one that is understood and memorable.
The analysis of the “I Have a Dream” speech revealed that the content was important but more so the structure and use of language. The metaphors used were remindful of a Southern Baptist preacher yet, King did not go the way of fire and brimstone and hell as their destination. He, throughout the speech used examples of redeeming the situation and shared his “dream” of the future. It was a simple message of hope.
References
Danesi, M. (2007). The quest for meaning: a guide to semiotic theory and practice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
I Have A Dream Speech - Text, Audio and Video of Martin Luther King's Most Famous Speech. (n.d.). MLK Online - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speeches, pictures, quotes, biography, videos, information on MLK Day and more! Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nammour, C. (2003, August 27). NewsHour Extra: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom -- August 27, 2003. PBS. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec03/march_8-27.html
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Sundquist, E. J. (2009, January 16). First Chapter, King's Dream. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/books/chapters/chapter-kings-dream.html
[Woman with books]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2010, from lib.umd.edu
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