Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech “I Have A Dream” was written not only to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation’s 100th anniversary, but to urge his dominantly African American audience that their freedoms are long overdue. One rhetorical feature King used that spiked my interest was the use of the allusion, “taking the drug of gradualism” (405), when talking about America failing to give its citizens of color their unalienable rights. This interested me because King recognizes the fact that the entity responsible for segregation is hoping that the uprisings and protest just blow over and things will go back to normal. By using this analogy, King is urging his audience to be active in the movement before it loses its edge and demotivates people from trying to get their rights.

Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me” tells the story of a Native American boy who lives on a Spokane Reservation in Washington state with his lower-to-middle-class family. Despite his disadvantageous circumstance, he managed to teach himself how to read via a Superman comic, who he idolized in his younger years because he used his abilities to help others. The main point Alexie tries to establish is that by learning how to read, he not only bettered himself, he strived to help his people by using his abilities as a reader and writer, as well as helping them ascend from the shackles of cultural stereotyping with education.

Terry McMillan’s essay demonstrates the many similarities that The Wizard of Oz has with her own life growing up on a farm in Michigan. From her strict parents, lack of freedoms and overall unhappiness, McMillan was amazed to see Dorothy succeed in her quest, and was inspired to see things in a more optimistic fashion and escape her depressing childhood. McMillan’s thesis is that inspiration can come from anywhere and it can take you far in life.

In the end, both authors made their revelations through a key event in their childhood. However, one key difference is that Alexie wants to help others around him, and McMillan wants to focus on herself and her happiness.